Another Falconry Blog

Digging on the Dogs

2011-03-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

I spent some time out in the field with America's premier terrierman over the weekend. There's a write up of our adventures over at Terrierman (an excellent blog if you've never checked it out...).

Pheasant Hunt With My Boy

2011-02-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy time getting ready for a move out East but I snuck out for a quick pheasant hunt with my Dad and son this past week. My Dad did a great write up of it over at the Upland Journal. I think this is going to be a favorite picture of mine for a long time to come!

If you didn't take the time to read the write up, my son is 4 and that little gun is plastic with lights on the end of the barrel and a great shooting noise when you pull the trigger. We shot at that bird at the same time, so no telling who hit it...(although I'm pretty positive it was his) :-)

Release

2011-01-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

The day finally arrived. I've got to get on with packing and moving and the weather report said that this week would be in the 50's so I took Goliath on one last hunt before turning him loose. He was already fat from being fed a bunch in anticipation of the release but in typical Goliath fashion he flew well regardless. He nailed the first starling of the day. We tried for doubles but none of the subsequent slips were quite ideal. He may have caught another had he been a bit lower but I was pretty happy with his performance given how fat he already was. I took him to a field near my home, fed him up until he wouldn't eat any more, cut the jesses off and sent him on his way.

One or two more bites as a free bird:

I was actually planning on taking a little video of the release but my camera batteries died right after these pictures! My friend tried to snap a few post-release photo's after he left my fist for the last time but he flew off when my friend approached. That's a good sign. He'll have no trouble out there and will make some female very happy come spring.

Thanks for the memories Goliath. You were a good one.

Chances are good that I won't be posting again on here until next season. There are some pretty big life changes coming up in the next few months and free time will be scarce but I'll be back eventually.

Thanks for reading, tune in next time...

Holiday Adventures

2010-12-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of time off of work for the holidays so I spent a good deal of time letting Goliath do his thing.

On Christmas Eve we had the best flight of the year. I decided to swing through a high school parking lot where I'd chased some starlings last year. I hadn't hit the spot this year so I wasn't sure what I'd find but to my delight there were quite a few starling around. Unfortunately, none offered ideal slips but I was figuring a slip was a slip and I'd take whatever I saw.

There was an embankment on the far edge of the school about 20 yards back from the edge of the parking lot. The embankment itself was probably 10 feet high and there was a chain link fence at the top. There were probably a dozen starlings feeding on the far side of the fence and that perked Goliath's interest. They were barely visible from our vantage point. Then two popped through the bottom of the fence and I figured, "what the heck, we'll give it a go" not expecting much.

Goliath left the fist about 40 yards from the birds. I thought he was way too far away and the fact that he had to go up a hill to get to them meant he didn't stand a chance. As expected the starlings spotted him coming in from below when he was still a good 15 yards out and took to the air. The two that had been on our side of the fence popped straight up and Goliath poured on the speed snagging one right out of the air at the top of the fence!! I could hardly believe my eyes! What a flight! He had to gain at least 15 feet of elevation to catch that thing! I know that's not much for the bigger birds but pretty impressive for a kestrel!

On Christmas day we had another fantastic outing. We went 2/3 on slips and it was actually the one that he missed that was the best flight!

It was the first slip of the day, a group of starlings was hanging around a restaurant parking lot but they were about 30 yards out and down a small hill. Goliath could see them dropping off the wire but after they landed they couldn't be seen from where we were. I was trying to figure out how we could get a slip on them but a few flushed when I started toward them ready to throw Goliath so I retreated a little and put him back on the fist like normal. He bobbed a couple times and then took off towards the starlings even though we couldn't see them! He swerved down the hill and around a tree and a bunch of starlings busted where he went down. He'd missed, but what a cool flight!

The next flight was about 20 yards at some starling feeding on the edge of a dumpster. He plowed in to one right on the edge and tumbled into the dumpster with it! Luckily (unluckily?) it was a pretty full dumpster and all I had to do was reach over and pull him off the top. Starling one in the bag.

Now I'd never been successful at doubles until today but my buddy was supposed to come out with me earlier and had gotten caught up on the phone with relatives. Since he'd never seen Goliath take a starling and I kept catching them when he wasn't around I figured I owed it to him to try for another! We found a group near the same restaurant where I'd gotten the first missed slip and this time they were in a much better position. Goliath smacked one near the top of a small hill and they went tumbling down into some landscaping. I pulled them out and claimed my first double!

It had actually been a rough week as far as slips go. I was planning on putting buckets full in the freezer during my time off but on most days I only got one slip, if that. I did catch another starling in there somewhere but it was nothing incredible.

New Year's Day made up for it though! We had a big storm come through and things got cold. I got up and even though Goliath was a tad on the high side (92.5) I suspected that the cold would keep the starlings on the ground and we could get a few more slips then we'd been getting. Boy was I right!

I left the house at 9:03 and the first starling was in the bag by 9:09. It was a nifty little flight at some birds hanging out near a dumpster. They flushed before he got there but he snagged one out of the air at about the height of the dumpster. I love air catches!

I had a few more slips before we connected again. One miss was pretty cool in that he took a 40 yard flight at some birds we couldn't see behind a wall. We watched them drop from on top of a building and he just took off. It would've been even more cool had he caught one but he was awful close.

The next catch came near a doughnut shop. There were starlings EVERYWHERE. I don't think I've ever had that many starlings just hanging around. He had a couple misses there too but the starlings would literally land right beneath him after a miss. They were tempting fate and #2 collided with it as Goliath pounded him while he was snacking on some bread pilfered from a nearby dumpster.

I thought about calling it a day and fed Goliath quite a bit after that but as I was feeding him more starlings landed right in front of us! Can't argue with that! So I pulled the starling wing away and we went again.

It took a little bit of convincing to snag #3. Since he was already high when we left the house and he'd gotten some good tidbits after the first two, he balked on several that he usually would've hammered. #3 was just too good an opportunity though as it landed right in front of us and was busy gobbling up some dumpster goodies. Goliath smacked him so hard they rolled about 4 feet.

3 was as many as I could ask for though and better than I've ever done. I fed him up and we headed home. A fantastic way to start the new year!

Alas, my time with Goliath looks to be short lived. I got news over the break that I will be starting a new job out of state in the middle of February. Its really too bad since Goliath is turning out to be a phenomenal bird but this change is for the better. I have a few more weeks and then I'll fatten him up and turn him loose. He'll do just fine on his own and he'll always be a bird to remember.

Another Sparrow

2010-12-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

Goliath snagged another sparrow over the weekend. Not much to write about, one slip, one bird. I thought I had the camera on the picture setting but ended up taking a little video instead. The subsequent pics I took didn't turn out too hot so I'll just include the video here:

Apparently a lady that feeds the sparrows (in a Walmart parking lot??) saw the catch and she was none too happy with our shenanigans. First time I've ever had a negative encounter! I know those types are out there but I've been lucky to avoid them thus far. She may think sparrows are cute but they can be nasty little critters that harm native bird populations. I wasn't going to argue though. She said it was "sickening to watch a bird prey on her sparrows", I said, "You know this happens every day in the wild, right?"

"I know, but it's sickening."

"Ummm...okay?"

And I left. She feeds "her" birds, I feed mine. This is how things work. :-P

Back in the Swing of Things

2010-12-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Goliath flew like he was on fire at 90.2 grams. We had a few great off-the-fist chases at sparrows in hedge rows before he nailed this starling in a hospital parking lot:

Now that man week is over, it's time to slay some starlings!

Manliest of Man Weeks Part 3: Elk Hunt

2010-12-07T14:27:00.001-08:00

After NAFA Joel and I headed home to spend Thanksgiving with our families. We stuffed our faces, kissed our wives and kids, and headed out the next morning to hunt elk in the Rocky Mountains.

We started by sighting in the rifle I would be using. A .300 Magnum I'd borrowed from my father specifically for this hunt. It had never been shot before and my father pounded in to my head the need to sight it in correctly before I shot it at any animals. It's been awhile since I shot a high-powered rifle and well, I was rudely reminded of how powerful the kick is on my first shot:

It was the scope that put those nice little marks on my forehead! Ouch! But I learned my lesson and we got the rifle pretty well sighted in.

From there we chained up the truck and began our ascent to elk camp:

And further up the mountain we were breaking trail. Apparently we were first up the mountain this weekend:

We had a bit of an adventure with our canvas wall tent in that the spikes that are pretty much essential in holding the tent up weren't in the bag when we got to our spot. With a little bit of good ol' fashioned jerry rigging and the help of some nearby trees however we finally had our living space for the next couple of days:

It wasn't pretty, and to be quite honest we were worried that a strong gust of wind might take us out, but once we got the little pot bellied stove going it was a heckuva lot warmer inside than out. It got down to something like -9F that first night but honestly I was too warm if anything.

We were up before the sun the next morning. It's funny but if I'm going hunting I'm instantly awake when the alarm goes off. We loaded up for the day and headed out. I was to sit in a blind half way down a ridiculous slope but there were game trails both above and below the spot. Joel promised me this was a good spot. He was going to head another ridge over and work his way through some aspens down to another blind he knew of there. The plan was to meet back up around 9:00 or 10:00.

As I made my way down to the blind I spotted a couple of deer walking right beneath the blind about 400 yards away. I sat for a moment and put my scope on them just to see what they were doing and they looked right up at me. They weren't in too big of a hurry but after spotting me they weren't sticking around. I casually watched them saunter off in the direction Joel had gone but didn't pay them too much attention. I continued on for about 5 minutes before glancing in the direction the deer had gone. I noticed one working its way up a hill and then a much larger shape materialized next to it. Elk!! I sat down again and put my scope on a small bachelor herd of about 6 bulls. They were much too far away to shoot but it got me excited and both Joel and I only had cow tags anyway. I watched them disappear into the aspens and figured Joel would probably catch a glimpse of them from his spot as well.

I finally got to the blind just before the sun came up. There was a lake beneath us covered in fog and it made quite a beautiful scene. I snapped a few photos from the blind:

We met up a little before 10:00 as planned and discussed what we should do for the remainder of the day. Joel had seen a few more elk on a ridge a little further away but they disappeared into another stand of timber and he suspected they were going to hole up there for the day. I offered to work my way up and around the timber to try and push a few out to Joel who would stay in the blind.

It was a good idea but I hadn't quite considered the logistics. As mentioned before, the blind was on a ridiculous slope and I had to go back UP the hill to get around the timber. It was a brutal climb. I finally reached the top though, surveyed the territory and saw that the timber was much larger than I had originally thought. I went about half way over and decided to drop down into it to make my push. I hadn't gone far when I saw a nice big 5 point elk shed sticking out of the snow! My son would love it! So I strapped it to my pack and continued on. I told myself to take it slow because the timber was so thick it would be easy to miss something. 3 steps and stop, 3 steps and stop. It wasn't more than a dozen steps after finding the shed that I glanced down through the trees and thought I saw something looking back at me. I slowly sat down and put my rifle on my shoulder. It was an elk! And what's more I had a perfect shot at about 50 yards...only I couldn't see it's head. My crosshairs were right on its shoulder and it just sat there. I was afraid to move but I was surprisingly calm. I ran my crosshairs up its shoulder to its head and much to my dismay I saw antlers. It was a bull, no shot. I walked a couple more feet and it noticed me, swung it's butt end around and trotted off through the woods. I was amazed that for such a large animal in such heavy timber it didn't make a sound.

I continued down through the trees, took a short snack break, and finally made my way back over to Joel in the blind. I had pushed one bull out to them but again, we only had cow tags. The number of animals we were seeing however was encouraging. We spent the rest of the day skirting the top of a ridge and being amazed at all the sign we were seeing. At the end of the day we made our way back to camp and just before the sun went down we saw 4 cows about 1000 yards away. We'll see you tomorrow, I thought.

After a grueling day wandering up and down that mountain we were hungry. We did an inventory of our foodstuffs and decided to just throw it all in a dutch oven and call it good. There was turkey, summer sausage, thai soup, and various vegetables, and in the end it was...well, interesting.

I ended up eating 3 or 4 bowls full just because I was THAT hungry but it wasn't something I'd save the recipe for!

The next day Joel and I split up before the sun came up again. I intended to go to the ridge where we'd seen the cows the night before and he was going to work the edge of the timber I'd gone into the day before and make his way back to the blind. I got a little mixed up once I entered the timber though and ended up on a ridge we'd worked the day before. The good news was that just as I got to the edge I saw two bulls making their way up the side of the mountain and a cow about 500 yards away. I don't know if she saw me or what but she was headed in the opposite direction in a hurry. I wasn't going to lob a shot at her from that distance though. She was safe...from me anyway.

Shortly after I'd settled myself for the morning I heard a shot ring out across the valley. Joel had taken a shot at something! Shortly thereafter, another shot, followed by a third! And then...silence. "Hmmm," I wondered, "Did he get one? Should I head over there to help him out or should I stay put and see if I can get one myself?" After about 20 minutes of debating with myself I decided to head over to see what had happened. I found Joel sitting the blind looking disappointed with himself. Apparently he'd shot at a cow a good distance away and missed all three times.

From what Joel had told me about how smart elk are I figured that our hunt was pretty much over at that point. All the other elk within hearing distance would be running for 20 miles or more. But after a brief discussion we decided to sit in the blind until at least 9:00 just to see if we could get lucky. Here's what the blind looked like:

Here's the view directly up from the blind:

And looking down from the blind to the right:

And to the left:

We hadn't been sitting more than half an hour when I noticed 4 deer working their way up from the small aspen grove directly beneath us. Apparently animals were still moving, I took that as a good sign. Another 15 minutes later and a shot rang out from above us. I spun around and saw two bulls at the top of the ridge. More bulls? Frustrating, but at least there were still elk in the area. Probably 10 minutes later Joel whispers, "There's some, don't move." And of course the first thing I do is whip around to see what he's talking about. 3 cows came sauntering out of the aspen patch you see to the right of the picture that is looking down from the blind on the right.

"They're cows." Joel whispers and my scope is on the lead animal. "You take the leader, I'll take the next one." I whispered back to Joel and I moved my crosshairs to the next animal.

I was surprisingly calm. The biggest thing I'd hunted before this was pigs in Hawaii and I remembered shaking considerably when I'd gotten shots at them. I was excited this time for sure but overall there was little emotion. My only thought was, "We're going to get our elk."

"Do you have a shot?" asked Joel.

"Not yet," I replied, "They've got to clear the aspens...here they come...I'm going to shoot on 3...1...2...BOOM!" Apparently I shot a little bit before 3 and to my amazement my elk didn't drop! I heard Joel shooting to my left and since there was more than one shot I assumed that his elk didn't go down either. It took me a second to realize I needed to shoot again. I chambered another bullet and fired again. She flinched like I hit her but was still on her feet. I was amazed that they hadn't run further but after the initial volley they'd only gone another hundred or so yards. They stopped again directly beneath us. I chambered one more bullet, calmly laid the crosshairs on her shoulder and fired. She stumbled and fell.

"Mine is down!" I yelled. I'd just killed my first big game animal ever.

The story of Joel's cow is a bit unfortunate. He had hit her in the back left hindquarter. She made it down the ridge and to the edge of the timber you see on the left edge of the picture from the blind looking left. She wasn't going anywhere but we didn't have a good shot on her from our position so Joel began working his way across the mountain for a better shot when another hunter spotted her standing there and took a shot to knock her down. Joel did take the final shot but the other hunter claimed that since he knocked her down the cow was his. Joel said that in all the years he's hunted that area, even when it's covered in other people, he's never run in to that problem before. There was a bit of an argument before I suggested that we had our hands full with the other cow. Joel reluctantly gave up his animal but we got a picture and talked the other hunter into giving us the hindquarter where Joel had initially hit her.

It was a little after 7:00 a.m. when all was said and done. We spent the rest of the day dressing my elk, breaking camp, and then dragging her down the mountain to where we could pick her up with the truck. Despite being relatively downhill the entire way it was quite the drag. We started at the top of this mountain, the picture was taken from the truck looking back up to where we'd been.

I was exhausted by the end of the drag. Pulling a 800 lb animal down a mountain is as tough as it sounds even with three people involved. But the meat from this animal will feed both of our families well into the summer and the experience is something I will remember forever.

We spent the next two days butchering the cow and stocking the freezer with elk steaks and roasts and grinding up elk burger. We took another 25 lbs to a processor to be made in to sausages and brats.

And thus ended Man Week 2010. It was a week that Joel and I will be talking about for years to come. Pheasants in Kansas, a hawking trip, and elk to top it off. I can only hope that this will become a yearly tradition!

Manliest of Man Weeks Part 2: NAFA

2010-12-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

My last post ended with Joel and I pulling in to our camp at the North American Falconer's Association annual meet. Most people who attend this meet stay at the official meet hotel but for $80 a night it felt a little too luxurious to a few of us who elected to find a nearby trailer park that would allow us to put up a tent for a mere $5 a night. We were deemed the "Gypsy Hawkers" and even had a banner made for our tent:

As you can see though, this was no ordinary tent, a fellow falconer from Colorado brought his outfitters tent complete with a pot-bellied stove that kept the interior toasty warm despite the cold nights. $15 for our entire stay rather than the $240 it would've cost at the hotel (which I hear wasn't a great experience in and of itself...)? No complaints here! And the whole crew agreed we should do it again next year. Hopefully Gypsy Hawkers will be come an annual tradition.

We headed out early the next morning to get the hawking started. We actually began by meeting up with a fellow kestrel hawker to see if we could catch a starling with her female. As luck would have it, as we pulled into a rather empty looking lot to see if some starlings on a telephone wire would come down, a jackrabbit popped up out of nowhere! We had 4 red-tails with us so one was quickly pulled out of the car and sent on the chase. Despite there being no more than an inch of brown grass mowed to a stubble on this lot jacks began materializing left and right! We'd found a fantastic jack field right in the middle of town! The kestrels were abandoned for the moment while we chased jacks with several birds and eventually caught one with a big female flown by a falconer from Illinois. It was his first jackrabbit ever and he was ecstatic (even though his bird mistakenly grabbed his hand while he was trying to help with the jack...). I know many pictures were taken but I haven't seen any of them floating around on the Net yet. I'll insert them when I find them.

On the way back to the hotel to pick up another red-tail to take back to our awesome field, we found a large group of starlings feeding on the side of the local Walmart. The other kestrel hawker had her chance! She took the slip and her little kestrel nailed it's first starling. Again, pictures were taken but I haven't seen them yet. It was a fantastic start to the first day of the meet for our little group!

The days that followed were filled with more jackhawking with red-tails. I had intended to go out with a few other folks to see birds fly but we were having so much fun chasing stuff with the birds we had we just kept at it. One morning a fantastic photographer, Tasha Leong (who contributed the tent photo as well) came out with us and took these great shots of Joel's red-tail in action:

A narrow miss!

Joel's red-tail actually hit this jack and rolled it a couple times, this photo was just after the rolling stopped and the bird and jack took stock of the situation:

Other shenanigans in the field:

"Look, a mouse!"

"Got it!" (Look closely on my arm...)

Back at camp we threw some of the pheasants Joel and I had gotten into a dutch oven along with anything else we could find lying around and made a sort of pheasant "goulash". Usually when I cook pheasant it dries out quite a bit and is fairly tough, this was delicious!!

As we all crowded around the table to partake of the goulash, a pvc pipe that had been installed as a hose spigot (not very smart since pvc gets rather brittle in freezing temperatures!) was bumped and a water fountain erupted near the table when it broke completely off! We quickly called maintenance but quite the pool was forming as we waited and the water was creeping toward our tent. We tried to shove a towel down the pipe to stop the flow of water but there was too much pressure so we tried to hold it down with a flushing stick we had in the back of Joel's truck. Still too much water pressure, but we were on the right track, we just needed something to hold the pole in now. We decided to use the carrier that attached to an SUV trailer hitch, propped it on the table and balanced it on the pole that was keeping the towel in the broken pipe. It's not nearly as funny in writing as it was in person but we all thought it was a fine bit of redneck engineering! The maintenance folks finally did shut the valve off and the water was kept from our tent.

Despite all our efforts, the jackrabbits eluded us but Joel's bird finally snagged a cottontail on the last day we were at the meet, earning Joel his first ever NAFA game pin.

Overall it was a great time and it was a shame that we had to leave before the official end of the meet (Saturday night I believe) to get home for Thanksgiving. On our way out of Dodge we did stop at that little walk-in with the abandoned farmstead and put one more rooster in the bag before we made the drive back home to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with our families.

As delicious as the meal was, it was only a brief respite before we were out hunting again. We left the day after Thanksgiving to pursue elk in the Colorado mountains. Part 3 soon...

Manliest of Man Weeks Part 1: Pheasants

2010-11-30T08:44:00.000-08:00

November 19th began an epic week to remember. The week was so epic, in fact, that I can't possibly contain the tales in a single post. This will be a three part series (plus or minus) detailing:

A pheasant hunt in Kansas (Nov. 19th~21st)

The 2010 North American Falconers Association (NAFA) meet in Dodge City, Kansas (Nov. 21st~24th)

and

An elk hunt in the mountains of Colorado (Nov. 26~28th)

I guess the best place to start is at the very beginning!

One of my best friends, Joel, and I loaded his truck and headed out late Friday morning headed to Kansas. Our eventual objective was the NAFA meet in Dodge City but for the last few years I've gone to Kansas to shoot pheasants with my father. He couldn't make it this year but since Joel and I were headed in that direction anyway we thought we'd leave a bit early and do some shooting before the meet started.

To be honest there's not much to write about the first couple days. We drove to a few of the walk-in areas around the town we were going to be staying in the first night just to get the lay of the land and only had time to walk one before the sun set on us. Unlike when I go with my father, we didn't have dogs, so it was a tall order for just the two of us to push some of the native grassland. We got two hens up but didn't fire a shot. In fact, we saw more prairie falcons that first day then we saw pheasants! One actually hung around the field we were hunting and did a few flybys. Being falconers and all, we thought it was pretty cool but we did want to find some pheasants! As we were packing our guns back at the truck we saw a MONSTER whitetail buck but went to our hotel empty handed.

We misjudged when the sun would rise the next morning. We crossed from mountain time to central time on our way over which put sunrise closer to 7:30 rather than 6:30! So we bounced along the back roads in the dark and arrived at our first planned location well before shooting time. I'd hunted this area a few times with my father and knew there were pheasants about but dogs were definitely the difference in the equation this time.

When the sun finally did rise we set off over the grassland and I quickly realized that without dogs the birds were likely to run circles around us. Again we flushed a couple of hens but nothing we could shoot at. We went a little further down the road and watched a rooster fly from a controlled shooting area (basically a place you have to pay to hunt) across the road to a field where we could hunt. A good sign! Just behind him we watched another rooster sneak out of the grass with a hen in tow. They were smart birds though as they stopped in the middle of the road and looked right at us, frozen for about 30 seconds before deciding they would rather take their chances in the controlled shooting area than deal with us. The rooster and hen in the road flew back in that direction and when they did the grass around them erupted in 30 or 40 pheasants following their lead in the opposite direction of where we wanted them to go! So much for that spot as the lone rooster that had flown across the road heard the ruckus and made his escape as well.

We headed southeast toward Garden City, our next destination. A small stand of evergreens along the way yielded three roosters that flushed out of range but flew to a field where we knew we could find them. We spotted all three out in a wheat field and opted to go after the pair that were closer together hoping to get both. My nerves get the best of me when hunting though and a poorly timed flush on my part prevented Joel from getting a shot (a recurring theme on this trip). I did drop one rooster though so we had our first bird for the trip.

The rest of the day was nothing to blog about. Lots of walking through large grass fields where I'm sure most of the birds just hunkered down and let us walk right past them. We pulled in to Garden City having hunted hard all day with only the one bird to show for it. Luckily we were able to find a nearby sports bar that was showing the UFC card that night and that took our minds off an otherwise disappointing day.

Sunday was going to be our last day of shooting and by now we had a better idea of the kind of cover we needed to find if we were going to be effective. With just the two of us we had to have something to push the birds in to, an empty field or road, otherwise they could avoid us rather easily. We were also hoping to find walk-ins that had been planted with some type of crop since the grasslands were obviously unmanageable. We found a perfect spot with cut milo and a thin row of grass separating it from thicker cover. Joel walked on one side of the grass and I walked on the other and low and behold right near the end a rooster flushed out Joel's side and a single shot brought it down. Finally Joel had gotten a bird and I didn't feel so bad about screwing up the first opportunity when I'd gone mine!

We headed back to the car and realized that it had gotten rather warm. I had on two pairs of pants and winter boots and it was simply too much. Joel also opted to shed some layers at the truck and as we were both changing he suddenly yells, "Two roosters just landed in that field right behind you!" Talk about being caught with your pants down! I quickly laced up my shoes, grabbed my gun and we both headed to where he'd seen them put in. I jumped into the brush and sure enough a rooster flushed just to my left. I took a wild shot with my first barrel, missing completely, and then his tail exploded as Joel shot. I regained my composure and dropped him with my second barrel. Good team work! We called it an assist as I gathered the bird and went looking for the other that Joel had seen. Unfortunately, the second wily bird snuck out behind us and made his getaway well out of range. But we were starting to see birds, and put a few in the bag, this was good!

We were getting closer to Dodge City, our final destination, but still wanted to check out a few more walk-ins before we called it good. As we continued our search I saw a suspicious looking minivan parked on the road. Hunters? we wondered as we approached but a minivan didn't fit the typical profile. "I'll bet they're falconers!" I told Joel and as we passed we noticed that one of the two individuals standing at the back of the vehicle had a falcon in hand. We pulled over and chatted for a minute and they showed us a freshly trapped prairie falcon they'd just caught. It turned out that me and one of the guys knew each other online! They were looking for merlins so we told them were we'd seen a few and wished them the best before continuing on. We definitely got the sense that we were getting close to the falconry meet though!

We stopped at another walk-in when Joel noticed a hen walking toward the road. She flushed but we thought it was a sign that this would be a good spot. We stopped the truck, hopped out and no sooner had I loaded my gun and shut the door when pheasants erupted all around me! There must've been 40 birds that started popping up like popcorn. I quickly dropped one rooster and yelled for Joel who was on the other side of the truck still getting ready. We both missed our subsequent shots but wow, what a start to this area! It turned out to be as good as we hoped with cover that worked perfectly for the two of us. Joel made a beautiful shot on a rooster that was quite a ways away and despite watching him drop like a stone in a wide open spot we made the critical mistake of taking our eyes off him once he hit the ground. He must've had enough left in him to crawl to cover somewhere because despite looking for him for 45 minutes we couldn't find him. I really hate to lose birds, again, we needed dogs! We got one more rooster up at the end of a small patch of cover and I put him down with my first barrel. The only other exciting thing that happened in that field is that I walked right over a rattlesnake! I thought it was kinda cool, Joel wasn't as excited...

So 4 birds for the day, 5 total for the trip, and we ran in to another set of falconers before we called it good. Not excellent by any means but all things considered we'd done fairly well for two guys without dogs once we found the type of cover we could work effectively. I should've taken more pictures but didn't think to pull out the camera until we'd arrived at our camp in Dodge City. Here's all I've got:

We actually found one more spot, a small abandoned farmstead, that produced a whole bunch of birds but they flushed two far out for either Joel or myself to shoot at. We made a note of it though and figured we'd hit it again on our way back from Dodge (more on that later!).

So the shooting had ended and we'd arrived at the Gypsy Hawkers camp in Dodge City, Kansas. It was time to fly birds. Part 2 of the manliest of man weeks will follow...

UNESCO Recognizes Falconry

2010-11-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Great news! The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has officially recognized the sport of falconry as a living human heritage.

Something A Little Different

2010-11-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the opener for both pheasant and quail here in Colorado so I gave Goliath the day off and headed out with some good friends of mine to see what we could scare up. We hit the road about quarter to 5 and got to my friends property right about 7. There was a big group of hunters pushing the field right next to his property and we hoped they were pushing birds into our field.

Guns at ready, we headed out along a low row of trees. We could hear birds cackling in just about every direction but we made our first pass with nothing to show for it. We paused briefly at the tree line that marked the edge of his property to plan the next pass and then I took one more step toward a small clump of bushes and suddenly there was a flurry of wings. "Quail!" I shouted, and fired a shot, bringing down my first bobwhite ever. I was too focused on the bird that dropped and whiffed my second barrel but my companions managed to bring down two more. We certainly weren't expecting that but it was a great way to start the morning!

We pushed the edge of the property without seeing anything but heard occasional cackles below us so we turned that way. We set up to push a small area of thicker cover and flushed a hen pheasant, our first look at a pheasant for the day, so we were encouraged. We sent a couple of the guys to the other end of some thicker cover to try another push and they flushed a rooster. Both were using shotguns more designed for self-defense then hunting though and their effective range was probably less than 20 feet. That rooster got away scott free.

The whole group made it back near the road with no more flushes. We decided to move back toward the other end of the field when suddenly we hit the motherload! First one rooster got up, then a few hens, and then like popcorn birds were coming up all around us! Unfortunately I was at the far end of that cover and the birds were angling away from me. I took a few shots but the nothing fell. The group had managed only one rooster but we sure had fun shooting at them all!

We reloaded and regrouped before finishing off that patch and right at the end one more rooster flushed. Two of us shot and the rooster dropped. Our second for the day!

We headed in the direction that the large group had flown and pressured a couple more into the air. Lucky for them none of us are very good shots! One daring rooster flew down the entire line offering each one of us a broadside shot at 20 yards and STILL got away!

Before we knew it we were back at the corner where we'd originally flushed the quail and from another small patch of cover a single flushed. No one took a shot at that one but one friend said, "If there's one theres gotta be more!" and went off kicking the brush. Sure enough another small covey busted and I swung around and fired dropping my second bobwhite of the day!

By that time we'd marched quite a bit and headed back to the truck for some brunch. After some great food at a tiny cafe we headed back to the field. 4 hens greeted us by flushing right as we pulled up! We pushed the opposite end of the field and got a few more flushes. I dropped another rooster and despite our best efforts for 30~45 minutes we couldn't find him. I really wish we'd had a dog with us as I hate losing birds! Very disappointing.

A long walk and only one more flush later and the group was pretty much spent. I could hunt all day but getting up at 4 in the morning was pretty taxing for the majority of our party. We did try and push one small pivot corner on our way home but it was pretty obvious our group's heart wasn't in it so we called it a day and headed home.

Fortunately, one of the guys I was out with is my hawking buddy and we decided we had enough daylight left to try for a bunny! His bird was kind of a butthead but put in a couple good chases before finally tying one up against a fence. So we ended the day with 4 quail, 2 pheasants, and a bunny in the bag.

Not a bad day of small gaming!!

On Friday I leave to Kansas for another weekend of gunning for pheasants. On Sunday the North American Falconer's Association annual national meet begins in Kansas as well so I will spend Sunday through Wednesday hawking before returning home for Thanksgiving day, filling up on turkey, and then leaving on Friday for a late season elk hunt.

Life is good.

(Many, many, many, thanks to my wife for putting up with these adventures! I love you honey!)

Pushing My Luck

2010-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Goliath weighed in at 91g on Saturday morning. Still on the fat side of things but heck, he's caught stuff at 92.2 so I figured there'd be no problem.

And there wasn't. First slip of the day at a group of about 6 starlings feeding in some low grass behind a shopping center. It was a beautiful 30 yard flight where Goliath dropped off the fist and skimmed the tops of the tufts of grass keeping his profile low. They saw him right before he got there but it was too late for one and he smacked it about 6 inches off the ground. Best flight of the season so far!

But it was too dang quick!! I decided to go for two. Traded him off and we were back on the hunt. I found another group just across the street. It was an awkward slip though and he didn't seem to have the same fire in him that he had for the first slip. I'm always worried about going for doubles because I've never been successful and I feel like I'm not giving the bird it's just rewards after catching one and not letting him feed up. When there's lots of birds I usually don't have time and when I have time, I can't find any birds! I drove around for another hour or so but wasn't able to find any ideal slips. We had another decent flight where I threw him at some sparrows in a McD's parking lot but they were so close to the bushes that they just ducked under before he got there. I ended up calling him back down and fed him up on the morning's first starling. I wasn't paying attention though and after the feed he weighed 112! If I remember right he was trapped him at 109g...Flying Sunday was questionable.

At flying time Sunday he was a whopping 93 grams. And the wind was blowing about 20 mph. So what did I do? Went flying of course! We only got one quick flight at some sparrows that he barely missed and when I held up my fist with the starling wing he kited only briefly in the wind before coming right back. :-D

Conventional wisdom about kestrels is that you have to be excruciatingly exact with weight control. I know folks who weigh them every two hours and insist that tenths of grams make a difference. So I imagine I'm pushing my luck but Goliath seems up for the challenge.

There's a lot that I do with my kestrels that tends to defy conventional wisdom but I've been successful so far so I can't complain. In all honestly I don't think these guys are nearly as difficult as people make them out to be. If I can be successful with them, anyone can be!

A Bird In Hand...

2010-10-25T10:10:00.001-07:00

I didn't have a lot of time Saturday morning since I had to be somewhere at 8. I had about 40 minutes of daylight to hawk before 8 and then figured I'd head out after my appointment if needed. Well, it wasn't needed! We snagged starling #2 in a short flight in a restaurant parking lot. Unfortunately I forgot the camera! (But don't worry, there's a pic later...)

Goliath was actually heavier than I've ever flown him on Saturday at 92.2g. Early in his training he was great at 93g inside but outside would try and bolt even at 89. I guess he's figured out the program though. I'll admit I was nervous on our first couple slips at sparrows and while his response wasn't what it is at 88, it wasn't like I was waiting a long time for him to come back. 30 seconds max. What a great bird.

So on Sunday when he weighed in at 90.5 I wasn't too worried.

We actually had some really great flights. The first was at a shopping center with this huge sign that attracts starlings by the hundreds. The problem is, the sign is probably 50 ft. tall and they were all staying up near the top. There's some construction going on near the road below the sign and a lot of standing water in a depression made by the construction. The starlings would leave in large groups and head to that 'watering hole' periodically so I thought I'd see if I could get close to where they were going down and get a flight. Unfortunately I found that the construction consisted of putting a new, fairly busy road in between the sign and the water. I had Goliath cocked and ready to go (dart style) as I made my way back toward the sign just as a group of about 30 starlings came up from the water. They were about 20 feet over my head so I tossed G. just to see what he'd do. He was right in the mix but didn't like the situation for whatever reason and didn't even chase. He just headed to a nearby tree and I called him back. Kind of a cool sight though, I could just imagine him just throwing out his feet and snagging one mid-air but it was not to be.

I wandered around the parking lot for a bit kicking sparrows out of hedges and evergreen trees and tossing him at a few but my timing just sucks. A group will bust and I'll think okay, there's a few more that are going to come out...and then nothing does! Or I toss him and the sparrows just dive right back into the cover. I need a second flusher!

I finally found a great set-up with a lone sparrow bathing in a shallow puddle in a McD's parking lot. I made the toss about 20 feet out and the sparrow saw him coming and got the heck outta dodge. Goliath really turned on the afterburners and put in a good 30 yard chase with a couple twists and turns before the sparrow made it to the safety of a thick evergreen hedge. Really beautiful flight! Even without a catch, probably the best of the day!

We headed over to another spot that's usually loaded with sparrows and had another pretty good flight at some sparrows near some hedges. It was about as close as you can get without putting one in the bag with the sparrows doing the panic dance and Goliath just zigging when he should've zagged. Fun times though.

I debated kicking those sparrows out of the bushes but I just wasn't feeling the whole timing thing and that's a loooong hedge so I decided to head over to another section where Goliath caught his first sparrow. Sure enough, I was rewarded with a small group of about 6 feeding along the edge and Goliath nailed one in a nice 20 ft. flight.

Now what I should've done is just let him calm down and start plucking. When I got within about 5 feet I could see he was getting a bit squirrelly. I should've just stopped. I kept walking toward him and he hopped into the hedge. No biggie. This was the area where we had the run in with the wild female kestrel and coops last week though so I wanted at least to be able to see him. I ducked down to see where he went and couldn't see him so I hopped the hedge to look in from the other side. Of course then he went back to the other side so I hopped back over and this time he'd had enough and decided to boogie.

Here's the result:

Of all the places he could've gone in that area, I count myself unbelievably lucky that he only went about 75 yards and landed in a small, sparse tree. Another 75 yards and he would've been on the edge of a neighborhood lined with lots of large thick evergreens. I doubt I would've been able to find him. Or he could've gone to the top of numerous buildings in the area that would've offered him a much better platform to pluck on. I think that a) I'm extremely lucky, b) he's not big enough to carry a sparrow too far, and c) he just wanted to get far enough away from me that I would let him pluck in peace and that tree was as good as any. Whatever the case may be, I'm counting my lucky stars.

So that's what I did wrong. The next few things I think I did right. I didn't panic. I just sort of chuckled to myself and thought, "Oh great." and walked over to the tree. I didn't want to run up and spook him again. I stood under the tree for a minute and tried to asses the situation. He wasn't super high up, maybe 8 feet out of reach is all, but the tree wasn't big enough to climb. I saw that the sparrow had gotten wedged between two tiny limbs and Goliath physically couldn't move it at the moment so I got out the camera and took a few shots and video you see above. Goliath started going to work on the head and I had some hope that when he finished the head the body of the sparrow would fall down and he'd follow it (wishful thinking). Anyway, I made some calls to tell my wife I'd be late for a Halloween party we were supposed to be going to, and my falconry buddies so they could laugh at me. (None of them did of course but two were off flying their birds and too far away to help, the other offered to bring a ladder if that became necessary. I didn't think it was at that point.)

So I sat and watched him eat the head of the sparrow, occasionally offering a starling wing on my fist. He'd look, but wasn't too interested. After he finished the head he tugged a bit and was able to free the sparrow. He was looking around with the sparrow dangling from his beak and I was more than a little concerned that he wanted to head to a better spot. Luckily he just repositioned the sparrow and went to work the best he could on it's back. On a whim, I tossed the starling wing I had into the air and suddenly he perked up. Another toss and he was looking hard. 'Huh,' I thought, 'Let's see what we can do with this!' I tied my lure line to the wing (just in case he did come for it) and tossed it again. He wanted it but wasn't willing to give up his sparrow for it.

I'd read on a merlin group list-serve about how someone had retrieved a merlin that had flown over a fence by tossing a skinned starling tied to a line right next to it. The merlin had left it's kill for the skinned bird and the falconer was able to lift it over the fence attached to the line. I thought I'd give it a shot and tossed the starling wing pretty much right at Goliath. He jumped for it but the sparrow was caught in the branches and he wouldn't let go. His had one foot on the sparrow, the other grasping for the starling breast, and his wings suspending him from the branches. He looked at the sparrow, back at the starling breast and made his decision. He let go of the sparrow, planted both feet on the starling breast and I gingerly lowered him out of the tree! **PHEW**

As soon as he let go of the sparrow it dropped from the tree as well so I gathered it up, got out the rest of the starling carcass from the day before and let him munch on that while I clipped him in and took a victory shot of the weekend's spoils at the base of the tree:

All's well that ends well I suppose! And I was only an hour late to the Halloween party! So 3 sparrows, two starlings before the end of October. The best start I've ever had to a season. It's gonna be a fun one!

First Starling of the Season!

2010-10-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Had some time this morning so we went over to a nearby Walmart to see what was about. Goliath was heavier than I've ever flown him (90 grams) but I figured 'ta heck with it' and was really quite pleased at his performance.

While I've been throwing him at starling carcasses for quite awhile now he's never actually had a good shot at one. I found a group of half a dozen or so feeding on the side of the building and got about 15 yards away before they started looking jumpy so I gave him a toss...They flushed well before he got there but he made them squawk for sure and then landed on top of a Home Depot next door. With his weight being high I wasn't sure how his response would be but I held my fist up without a tidbit and he came right back. Fantastic start!

Our next slip was in the grass along the side of a restaurant. I was able to sneak a little closer this time and Goliath was right on top of one this time, I swear he grazed it's back, but it managed to evade him again. Still, he was chasing starlings so I was tickled pink!

It took awhile longer to find our next slip. I noticed a bunch of starlings feeding in between some parked cars. They seemed skittish but using the cars as cover I was able to get quite close. I should've thrown him but I thought they'd flush and my thinking was that if I held him up high on my fist he'd have a shot at them on the rise. Well, they didn't flush and Goliath smacked this one in a short flight in between the cars! Really not that much of a flight but for his first starling, I'll take it! I'd really like to work the throwing thing out but he's pretty good at these short flights off the fist!

#2 in as many days!

2010-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Couldn't be happier for our second week hunting.

With my wife and kids in tow I wanted it to be a good outing and surprisingly there were a lot of birds out and about. We had a decent slip at sparrows in a Home Depot parking lot and then found a group of about 20 starlings feeding out in a field. I tried to get as close as possible before throwing Goliath at them but they busted while I was still 20 yards away. I tossed him anyway but he just went up in a tree and yelled at me until I showed him some food. I got another toss at some sparrows on the way back to the car but that one didn't work out either.

We then headed to the Walmart where I caught the sparrow yesterday and hit the jackpot! The hedges were LOADED with sparrows. After he missed on the first slip I tossed him at some stragglers trying to hide in a small pine tree. I kicked the tree and tossed him at the fleeing birds and he chased for a bit before landing on a light pole directly above me. It was kind of cool to see him stoop to the fist from that angle when I brought out a tidbit.

We went back to the original hedge and the sparrows had returned. He shot off the fist and this time I saw him snag one on the edge of cover before he disappeared. I'd forgotten my good camera so I grabbed my cell phone and snapped this quick pic of him buried in the hedge:

I reached in and was able to grab a hold of the sparrow and lift them both out of the hedge. #2 in the bag! I snapped this photo with the good camera when we got home:

A crazy side note to the story is that last year I flew Hayduke several time in the same area. I was still experimenting with snap jesses at the time and had a pair whose snaps didn't quite "snap" like they were supposed to. Hayduke chased some sparrows into the very same hedge one time and came out without jesses. Luckily I had another pair and the day went on just fine. It's been almost a year since that happened but yesterday as I headed back to the car with Goliath and his sparrow in tow, my wife points to the curb and says, "Are those yours?" I took a look and said, "Yeah, they're mine from a year ago!" They were dirty and pretty crusty but otherwise in good shape (not that I'll use them, since the snaps are bad but still...). Crazy:

First Blood!

2010-10-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

We're officially on the board. We headed out at first light and found quite a few birds on the ground. I tried to sneak up on several groups of starlings and throw Goliath at them like we've been practicing but never got close enough for a good attempt. I did get a toss at some sparrows but Goliath overshot and went up to some telephone wires. At 87.4g he was back on my fist before I even had a chance to pull out a tidbit though! I knew he was ready, it was just a matter of finding the right slip.

The right slip presented itself in the way of a large group of sparrows hopping about on the edge of a low hedge at Walmart. Goliath darted off the fist and disappeared in the bushes. I honestly didn't think he got one but cautiously moved the bushes aside and found that he had one tightly by the neck. Bingo, sparrow #1 in the bag. I believe that my last bird, Hayduke, caught his first sparrow on the 17th of October last year so we're right on track.

If that wasn't good enough, we then went over to a nearby industrial park to fly my friend's red-tail. We had a couple close calls with some bunnies being flushed from some cattails and then a bit of confusion between his bird, a wild immature red-tail, and an owl all in the same tree, but his bird ended up catching a bunny off the fist in a nice short flight through some landscaping.

It was an awkward catch at first with the bird being pretty tangled in the bush:

But we got things sorted out:

All in all a FANTASTIC morning and hopefully the start of many more morning just like it!

Weekend Update

2010-10-11T08:01:00.001-07:00

Well it was a bust as far as the kestrel went. Rainy and wet so slips were pretty much non-existent. I did find a few sparrows hopping around under a bush at a Walmart but they were so close to cover that he didn't stand a chance. Great response though at 87g. Looks like that'll be what we shoot for the next time out. Now we just need to find good slips! (Is it still called a "slip" when I "throw" him at stuff...? )

The day was somewhat salvaged though when my buddy took another bunny with his Red Tail. It was somewhat anti-climatic as we were both trying to flush a bunny out of a bush as his bird was waiting in a tall cottonwood when we suddenly heard a bunny screaming and looked over to see that his bird had nailed a different one! We didn't even see the flight! Oh well, he'll take it!

First Hunt/Free Flight In The Books

2010-10-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing spectacular to report.

I found a bunch of sparrows feeding in some landscaping at a shopping center and walked to within 20 feet or so before throwing Goliath at them. Had he tried I believe he could've snagged one easy but as it was he just flew above them and tried to land on the building. He couldn't quite get his footing there so he headed over to a nearby tree in the parking lot and I pulled out a starling breast/wing to get him down. A female kestrel came zooming over as soon as he got to the tree but with me there I guess it didn't want to get too close and veered off about 15 yards away. Goliath only gave her a cursory glance. He went on to emphasize that at 88.5g he's still a tad too high by doing several strafing runs on my fist, trying to pull the wing away, before he finally snagged it and wouldn't let go. I got him settled on the fist and figured that was good for the day.

I'll try him again tomorrow a gram lower and see where that gets us.

First Kill!

2010-10-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Not Goliath's mind you, but I'm pretty proud of this one nonetheless.

This is my buddy's bird (from this post) on it's first bunny:

22 days from trap to first free flight, 25 until first kill. Not too shabby given that my friend had never handled a bird until this year!

I'm his quasi-sponsor due to the fact that, on paper, I'm still an apprentice and I kept telling him that once the bird is flying reliably to the fist he should go hunting. There's other training that can be done, to the lure, following on, etc., but in my opinion it's better to get the bird hunting again as soon as possible. Everything else is just frills. (Necessary frills in some cases, but frills regardless.)

He took my advice to heart and even without me or his other, real sponsor there he flew it free at 22 days and had 4 bunny chases then yesterday he sends me this picture. Absolutely fantastic! He's going to be a fantastic addition to the falconer pool and he's going to have a great season with that bird!

So you may be wondering, if it's best to get the bird out hunting as fast as possible...and he trapped his bird AFTER I trapped Goliath...AND he's got less experience...why isn't Goliath out there hunting...? Time constraints conspire against me but hopefully this weekend.

Dove Hunt

2010-09-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

No, Goliath isn't catching dove...(yet!)

A falconry friend of mine was gracious enough to take me to a property he leases yesterday and allow me to do a bit of dove hunting with shotguns. It was a first-time experience for me. I've hunted pheasants quite a few times but dove are a LOT smaller. Luckily we had ample opportunity to figure them out and we got a fair number of birds. (Don't ask how many shells we had to go through to get that many though...)

We took them home, breasted them out, and had them for dinner that night. Some were pan fried in butter, others were wrapped in bacon and slapped on the grill, and we even did a few on a cedar plank on the BBQ as well. Fresh dove = Good stuff! For those wondering, 17 dove breasts ended up being just about a pound of meat...needless to say we had delicious side dishes as well!

It's always a treat for me to be able to eat something that I harvested (regardless of whether it's meat or vegetables), and fall is the time for harvesting. I love this time of the year!

Introducing Goliath

2010-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose I'll go ahead an introduce everyone to Goliath, my new charge for the season. He is the passage male that we pulled off the trap about a week ago. I didn't have any pictures of him then and was just waiting until I got some good ones of him settled at home before I posted about him, I just kept forgetting to take them!

Not a whole lot to report, he's doing great. He weighed in at 109g off the trap and was around 93g 24 hours later. He's pretty much held that weight and is responding well inside. When weight reduction does happen he's gonna be a killer!

I had to choose between him and a passage female and was kind of agonizing over the choice but seeing how all I'm after is sparrows and starlings and Hayduke more than proved that males can take both I wasn't too concerned about size. He showed quite a bit of attitude off the trap whereas the female just kind of laid there so despite the outside talon on his right foot that looks like it either didn't fully develop or was damaged at one point, I decided that I'd go with the attitude. Plus, I think males make for better pictures! :-)

I think he's one of the prettiest kestrels I've had:

Here he is snagging a grasshopper in our bathroom last night:

I like my birds to know that they still have to kill their own food even if, at this point, it's just a grasshopper. He's figured out that if he comes back to me after the hopper he gets to fill up on starling breast afterwards. Like I said, progressing nicely. If all goes as planned we could be hunting by the end of the month!

It's gonna be a fun season! (It always is...)

More Trapping!

2010-09-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

It's really not supposed to be this easy. Especially this early in the season when it's warm and birds are fat. But for whatever reason the falconry gods are smiling on us this year and things have just worked out.

After the typically long and drawn out process of obtaining a falconry license, my friend finally got what he needed on Thursday and we headed out bright and early on Saturday morning (well, maybe not "bright"...it was 5:30 a.m.). We were headed to an area quite a bit north of us and wanted to be there before the sun came up so we could find birds before they'd had breakfast. As the sun peaked over the horizon we decided to pull off the highway and start cruising the back roads to see what we could find. It wasn't long before I spotted a bird sitting low on some farm equipment overlooking a field.

It was about 50 yards out and just starting to get light so we couldn't be positive but it looked to be a first year red-tail so we dropped the trap. We backed up about a hundred yards and trained the binoculars on the bird. We were debating on whether or not it could see the trap when it launched...It headed toward the trap but just kept flying...and flying, and flying. Into a large tree another 200 yards away!

We took a right at the next intersection and headed the direction of the tree but there was no road next to the tree and another set for that bird was improbable so we just kept driving. It wasn't more than a hundred more yards over a slight rise when I spotted another bird sitting on a pole on the left side of the road. Again, it looked like a passage bird so we dropped the trap and turned around a hundred yards away.

I focused the binoculars on the bird on the pole again when my buddy suddenly says, "There's another bird! And I think it just came from the trap!" I glanced away from the binoculars in time to see a bird pitch up to a telephone pole directly above the trap. It had come from the same direction we'd just come from but we're not sure where exactly it had been. Was it the first bird we'd seen coming from the tree quite a ways away or was it another bird that we'd just not seen? Either way, we were counting our lucky stars that we now had a bird that was clearly interested in our trap sitting right above it. It seemed like a while but I'm sure it wasn't more than a couple minutes before the bird dropped right on to the trap!

We slowly crept up toward the trap since we couldn't quite tell if he was caught. He hopped around for a minute or so before we saw the tell tale flop and we knew we had him! As we drove up we could see we only had him by a toe so rather than take pictures of him on the trap we hurriedly gathered him up and got him back to the car. Passage male red-tail, exactly what we were after.

It was only 7:30.

We both kinda looked at each other and I said, "You wanna keep trapping?" He said, "No reason really..." So we headed home to jess up his new bird:

Two days after he gets his license he's got his first bird. He must be doing something right! 1078g with the sock and the hood. Started regaining the fist on its own the first night. It's gonna be a fun season!

Banding Report

2010-09-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

I mentioned how I called the banding office after trapping that bird with a band last Saturday and was told I had an incomplete band number. Well I spoke with the individual in charge of making those reports and after a bit of discussion and some pure luck (the picture I took of the band on the leg is at the perfect angle to see the second to last number, and apparently if you know what the bands look like you can kinda guess what the last number is), we got the complete number and some info on the bird.

Got this via email today, kinda cool:

5 years for a kestrel ain't too shabby! Fun to have a bit of history on a bird you randomly pluck from the sky.

Let The Games Begin!

2010-09-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

Trapping season is officially underway in Colorado. I was up at first light on Saturday with BC's ready to go and I was on the lookout for kestrels. It turned out to be one of the best days of trapping I've ever had!

Right off the bat, two kestrels sitting near each other, we toss the trap and:

Passage female! And it wasn't even 8:00 yet!

We forged on and made a somewhat long distance set on another bird. A fly by at first and then a bit more commitment and we had our second bird of the day! This one turned out to be a male hag. The cool thing was, it was banded!

I recorded the band number and made the call later in the day but they said the number was incomplete...Doh! I was referred to an authority on "partial" band numbers and left her a message but with the long weekend ahead I probably won't hear back for awhile. Bummer, it would be cool to get some history on a bird I trapped! The band actually had Laurel, MD written on it but I suspect that's where the band was manufactured rather than where the bird came from. A kestrel flying cross country east to west just doesn't make much sense to me but who knows. I hope the lady calls me back.

Moving along, we came upon a family group. 4 kestrels within 100 yards of each other, 3 of them sitting on the same pole at one point! We got a drop on them but as we passed the two we were after bumped to a telephone pole over a small rise near a railroad track (that's where they were joined by the 3rd from somewhere). The new location didn't offer a very good opportunity to set as there wasn't a road on the side of the tracks nearest them. We figured our original drop was a decent place though so we had one of the members of our team get out of the car and walk toward them. Sure enough, all 3 bumped BACK TOWARD THE TRAP and less than a minute later we had a passage male on the trap!! I was so amazed I forgot to take pictures! We couldn't miss today!

Onward, ever onward, we spotted a bird high on a telephone pole and made the drop on the corner of a dirt road intersection. It wasn't long before the bird dropped off to say hi to our BC mouse (we used the same mouse all day, he was used to this by now...). #4 was another male hag:

Shortly after that we were cruising down yet another dirt road and I happen to spot a bird on a wire right as we passed. The trap was tossed almost as an after thought as it seemed I barely had time to tap on the brake. She was on the trap before we turned around. We debated on whether or not she was a passage or a hag. I was arguing for the latter due to a wider last band on the tail and closer inspection revealed a still moulting tail feather and confirmed my suspicions. #5, a female hag:

A wrong turn took us pretty far out of kestrel country and we hit a slump after that. Mind you we'd been at it only a few hours at that point but with afternoon appointments looming we decided we'd had enough fun for the morning and headed home. 5 kestrels in about 4 hours ain't too shabby!

Soooo, did I keep one? Keep an eye on this space for more adventures to follow...

Warning: Nature Ahead

2010-09-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

Chad over at Southern Rockies Nature Blog posted this sign he saw on a trip to Vermont:

Not sure what to make of it...A part of me understands the "keep an eye on your kids, there are dangers about" part of it, but the wording irks me a bit. "Nature" down this path? Hmmm...thoughts?

In other news, the countdown widget at the top of my blog has served it's purpose and been removed. Trapping starts bright and early tomorrow morning. Kestrel for me, red-tail for my buddy, and possibly a cooper's hawk for another friend. Should be fun. Watch this space, should be much more active in the coming weeks!

Single Digits!

2010-08-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

The widget at the top of my blog is officially in single digits. Trapping season is literally right around the corner!!

As for the check list:

Food? Check!

New Traps? Check!

New Nooses on Old Traps? Maybe tonight...

Bait? One sparrow so far in my trap and last weekend was the State club's annual picnic where I made connections with a couple people with pigeon coops who say their places are almost infested. So I'm sure we'll have plenty. Throw in a few pet store feeder mice and we'll have our bases covered.

New Indoor Perch? Materials have been priced but it'll have to wait until payday. Shouldn't take me long to put together.

Clean Out Mews? Not yet, but since that's where all my old traps are, it may be another thing to tackle tonight or at the latest, this weekend.

Get Miscellaneous Gear In Order? Check, for the most part. A member of another forum I'm on let me in on this brilliant, (if not rather obvious, duh!) piece of advice: Falconers only used left-handed gloves but they usually come in pairs...turn the right-handed glove inside out and presto, left-handed glove! So I've even got a couple of new gloves for the season!

I've been eying the local starlings every morning and thinking, "I'll be coming for you soon..." Next entry will hopefully (barring any especially exciting news between now and then...) be about trapping adventures and possibly about my new charge for the season!

I'm giddy, this is better than Christmas I tell ya!

So Much To Do And...

2010-08-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

...So little time?

While I diligently check the widget at the top of my blog just about every day (in fact, I have a friend who will ask me every time he sees me, "How many days til trapping season?" because he knows I'll have the correct answer), it just hit me yesterday that I have a lot to do to get ready for the upcoming season and the time to have it all done is quickly approaching!

Stuff I have to do has been rolling around in the back of my head for quite awhile now:

Stock up on bird food (Check! Yesterday I picked up enough starlings to last me at least until a new kestrel is hunting, if not the entire season.)

Build a new trap (a new style I haven't tried before, just for kicks and giggles)

Tie new nooses on my old traps (I know they work)

Set out my sparrow traps (gotta have bait)

Clean out the mews (gets used mainly for storage in the off season)

Build a new indoor perch (we'll chat about that later, honey!)

Get all my other miscellaneous gear in order (Glove, leash, jesses, anklets, etc...)

I dunno, putting it in list form makes it seem less intimidating but it's a lot of small projects that are going to take up a bunch of time. Time well worth the effort however as I am really looking forward to this season (as I do EVERY season). A lot to look forward to this year, one of my good friends just got his license and will be trapping and training his first red-tail, I should be getting my upgrade to General at some point (after 15 years!), and there's a possibility that a significant life changing opportunity that I've been working on for a while will come to fruition during the season and mix things up as well...

Can't wait!

Yo-Yo's for Troops

2010-07-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy summer with conferences and road trips and unfortunately not a whole lot of falconry related activities so the posting has been scarce but an internet acquaintance of mine who is over in Afghanistan right now asked me to post this. It's a worthy project so participate if you get a chance!

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: Yo-Yo's for Troops

Thanks to these folks for allowing me to be able to be excited about trapping season that starts in 38 days!

Urban Fox

2010-05-25T07:39:00.001-07:00

I work in downtown Denver, literally the middle of the city, and this fellow greeted me at the front doors of my office this morning.

The crazy thing was that I don't think ANY of the other people around the building even noticed him! Or at least they had absolutely no reaction to a fox at the front doors...

I thought it was pretty cool.

Post-season Fun

2010-05-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Took a day off work yesterday to do some fishing with some friends. We hit a resevoir in the morning that is fishing great and I caught this beauty before we headed to the Arkansas River for some fly-fishing in the afternoon. Unfortunately the wind was blowing about 30 mph and made the river difficult but the fish were still biting. My friends caught a couple each and I missed enough that I can't complain. Besides, my fish at the resevoir was bigger than all the fish they caught put together! ;-) And even if I hadn't caught a single fish, it's always better than work! Hopefully more of these types of pics to come in the near future...

Time to Say Goodbye

2010-04-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

I released Hayduke this morning. It was a bitter-sweet event as I'm sure you all can imagine. As much as I would've liked to keep him around I just haven't had the time to fly him lately and looking at a spring and summer filled with conferences and vacations it didn't look like I'd have enough time to do him justice. I've been feeding him up for the past week and filled him with the back third of a quail this morning before sending him on his way. He was a fun bird.

Thanks for the memories Hayduke!

Catch and Release

2010-03-08T08:10:00.001-08:00

There hasn't been much worth posting about for the past few weeks. Slips have been hard to come by. I don't know if it's the warmer weather, the time of day, or lack of time, probably a combination of all the above but I've had only two or three slips the last two weeks.

Saturday again, the starlings were scarce but a sparrow presented a nice slip. Hayduke chased it under a car and caught it just before it got out the other side. As he typically does, he dragged it further underneath the car and began plucking. This was a fairly low riding car, its bumper just clearing the curb where it was parked so I could barely see him through the small triangle of space where the tire didn't connect with the curb. Reaching him would've been difficult so I sat myself on the curb and figured I'd just wait for awhile.

Well after 5 minutes of plucking the sparrow suddenly decided it didn't want to die (strange that it wasn't dead already since he usually kills sparrows pretty much on impact). It went into super freak out mode and wrested himself from Hayduke's grasp shooting out that tiny window of space. Not even my cat-like reflexes could prevent the escape. Hayduke came shooting out right behind but not nearly fast enough to catch up and decided that the quail wing on my fist was just as good as the sparrow.

He had it for a good 5 minutes though and there was quite a pile of feathers under the car so despite the escape I'm counting it! Catch and release...

Back in the Saddle

2010-02-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure how he'd fly after the layoff last week but he got his groove back quick enough:

We'd chased this flock of starlings back and forth between two shopping centers all morning and he'd had some near misses but hadn't been able to seal the deal. Maybe it was due to the layoff but he seemed to pull up just short on the 4 or 5 slips before this one. The misses must've pissed him off though because, kinda like a karate master doesn't punch the board he's trying to break but aims for a point behind the board, Hayduke plowed right through this one! Nice little flight.

Something a little different...

2010-02-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

This past week I had to spend some time in Florida for a work conference so I wasn't able to fly Hayduke but I needed to get my falconry fix some how so I got in touch with some local falconers. These folks went out of their way to show me some truely awesome falconry. The only downside was that my digital camera crapped out just before the trip! All I've got is some rather fuzzy cell phone pics but you'll get the idea.

On Thursday afternoon a second year apprentice named Matt made a 45 minute drive out to the resort I was staying at and picked me up only to drive another hour and a half (closer to two hours I think) to a field he'd gotten a good tip on. Matt is flying a fantastic red-tail in her 2nd year and we hooked up with a few other falconers, one flying an amazing finnish/german gos and another with a young Harris hawk that hadn't been entered yet. The field did not disappoint!

First up was the gos. The area was located in a large bowl and we were working along one of the edges with the gos on a T-perch when a bunny broke beneath us to the left. The gos shot of the T-perch before any of us even knew the rabbit had appeared and made the 30 yards up in the blink of an eye crashing down just behind the bunny. In true gos fashion the gos picked herself up and latched onto the bunny a scant 5 yards later and bunny #1 was in the bag. A great start!

The falconer traded her off and we set off in search of bunny #2 when one of the other falconers noticed a good sized rattlesnake tucked under a bush he was about to walk through! It was a pretty menacing sight and I really wish I had my better camera for the picture but this is all I got (Look closely!):

With the gos back up on the T-perch her falconer climbed a brush covered dirt mound and two rabbits bolted, going opposite ways. It was almost too easy for the gos who wrapped up #2 in 15 yards:

The gos got to feed up on this one but were kicking ourselves later on when we found out just how good this field really was! Not only did we kick up dozens more bunnies but we bumped at least two covies of quail! I would've loved to see the gos kick on the afterburners and fly one of those down!

Anyway, we trudged back to the car to pull out the Harris hawk. Despite having never caught a rabbit before he chased numerous bunnies and small birds with gusto. We ended his session by letting him feed up on a bunny the gos had caught to reinforce that those things taste good. I'm sure he'll end up being a great bird.

Then we pulled out Matt's bruiser. A 1300 gram red-tail that is quite ill intentioned toward rabbits. We wanted to work our way down toward the middle of the bowl where there was a tall telephone tower from which we were sure we'd get some good flights. I don't know how many bunnies we flushed on the way down there but we saw some great flights with the brush crashing that red-tails are known for but nothing more than fur to show for it. The red-tail was actually on the wing when we bumped one of the covies of quail and she actually dipped a wing at them! Quite the gamey bird!

It took a little coaxing but we finally got his bird up on the telephone tower in the center of the bowl and started beating the brush. We'd actually gone quite a ways and the cover was getting to be pretty tall when his bird launched into flight. She came barrelling over our heads about 50 feet up and crashed into the bushes about 50 yards from us snagging her first bunny of the day. From the tower to the bunny must've been at least 300 yards and the cover at that point was about head high. How on earth his bird spotted that rabbit from that distance in that cover I'll never know. I know they have good eye sight but this was just plain ridiculous!

Now usually Matt is satisfied with his one rabbit but there were so many bunnies in this field and the tower was such a good spot that he decided to try for his first ever double. His bird was a little flustered at not being able to take her fill of the first rabbit but eventually made her way back to the tower. It wasn't long before our crew flushed another unlucky bunny and the Red absolutely crushed it into the ground in a fantastic flight right in front of me. Congrats to Matt on his first ever double!!

I have to thank Matt again for going so far out of his way to pick me up, drop me off, and show me some great Florida falconry. That was truely a day to remember!

Saturday was my next chance to sneak some hawking in. For those of you who don't know, peregrine falcons had been on the endangered list for many years and while their numbers have fully recovered due to the efforts of many groups, not least of which were falconers, 2009 was the first year in about 40 that a limited number of States allowed take of wild peregrines. A Florida falconer by the name of Eric was lucky enough to draw a permit for one of these birds in Maryland and has been flying his beautiful Tundra peregrine, Doc, on snipe in his home state of Florida this season. Watching this bird fly was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

I've seen many, many high flying falcons but most of my experience has been in Skytrial settings with the falcons being served racing homing pigeons in pretty controlled situations (as controlled as falconry gets anyway). Up to this point I'd only seen falcons kill wild game twice before in my entire falconry career.

It was an hour and a half drive to where I was supposed to meet Eric at 7:30 in the morning but the falconry I was shown was well worth getting up early for. We drove to the ranch where Eric usually flies and fairly quickly flushed a snipe. Snipe are Eric's favorite quarry, they are fast and maneuverable and he's had many falcons be unable to catch them. He remarked that one of his friends told him that he's convinced that snipe are un-catchable! Apparently Doc didn't get the memo!

We very loosely marked the snipe we had flushed while driving by, Eric parked perhaps 50 yards further away and got Doc ready to go. The hood came off and Doc took in his surroundings before launching off the fist into the sky. Before long he was up at least 500 feet straight above us! We overshot the snipe by a good ways in our attempts to flush and I'm sure Doc had gone up at least another hundred feet by the time it finally flushed. He came sizzling down in a beautiful stoop that caused the snipe to crash into cover for safety. Doc went in right after him and the snipe took to the air again with Doc hot on his tail. The two twisted and turned for another 50 yards before the snipe bailed into the cover again and this time Doc must've lost sight since he started to ring up above us again. Eric and I rushed over to the area where the snipe had put in as Doc gained altitude above us. The snipe flushed again when Doc was about 200 feet overhead and again Doc came screaming out of the sky. The snipe tried to bail but Doc was too close and there was an audible thunk as the two collided on the ground. What a fantastic flight!

That makes 21 snipe for Doc this season! An absolutely incredible feat! It was a special honor to watch what amounts to the Holy Grail of falconry (a wild caught peregrine) fly at such an exceptional level. There wasn't much left of the snipe when Eric picked the birds up but here's a shot I got with my cell and one Eric took with his much nicer camera:

If that wasn't good enough, Eric then pulled out a beautiful little red-necked falcon native to Northern Africa.

What a beautiful bird! It flew at about 150 grams and was one of most maneuverable little birds I've ever seen. Scarred the bejeebers out of numerous sparrows! Unfortunately the little guy has a thing about going into cover after them. The sparrows would bail into cover when the bird was inches from closing the deal and rather than go in after them he'd hover over the spot for a couple seconds and then move on. We didn't catch anything with him but it made me rather excited to fly a merlin this fall.

So ended the morning and my falconry experience in Florida. All in all some absolutely fantastic flying from all the birds I saw and I can't thank all those Florida falconers enough for allowing me to tag along. All the hawking made the hours and hours of work conference just a bit more bearable and the memories will last a lifetime. Falconry rocks.

Hayduke's First Double...kind of.

2010-02-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a bust. I only had two slips in as many hours and both of them came in the last 15 minutes of hawking. Just as well though since after the first slip I could tell that his feathers still weren't right after the grease incident. He kind of "rattled" when he flew! The feathers looked okay but were obviously still stiff and it affected his flight. I dunked his tail and wings in dishsoap and rinsed him with 3 glasses of warm water when we got home! Shoulda just done that earlier in the week but for whatever reason I was reluctant. He was a pretty pathetic looking bird after his "bath" but the treatment paid off. He flew much better on Sunday.

Sunday was rather warm (50-ish*F?) and slightly windy (around 10-15mph). I headed out a little after one and ended up being surprised by the number of starlings I found on the ground that late. Our first slip was at a couple starlings feeding in a field next to an embankment. There was about a 6 foot drop from where I was to where they were feeding and Hayduke used the height to his advantage folding into a tight little (albeit short) stoop as he crested the edge of the embankment and dropped onto the starlings. Unfortunately they just managed to squirt out underneath him so we continued on.

A couple missed slips later and we found ourselves at a small shopping center where there always seems to be starlings but where I've never caught one. There was a good group feeding on the ground but it was an awkward slip. While I was contemplating the best approach a single touched down about 20 yards off offering a much better opportunity and Hayduke capitalized. It was one of those odd split seconds where things seem to slow down but from my angle it appeared that the starling was looking straight at Hayduke as he trucked in. I even had time to think, "It sees him, it's gonna bust and he's gonna miss..." but it just stared into the face of death as he plowed right into it! Wahoo!

At this point I didn't react as quickly as I should have. Hayduke has a bad foot with a messed up toe and dull talons (both of which I've been trying to fix for quite awhile) but generally he hangs on to starlings. As I jogged over I could see him trying to get a hold of the struggling bird with his bad foot but it kept slipping off. Just as I reached down to pick him up with his prize the starling made one last twist and popped out of his grasp hightailing it safety. Danggit! Hayduke was none too happy about the loss and gave me an earful about it. I had to make it up to him!

5 minutes later we hit the jackpot. Another shopping center with a couple restaurants and a movie theatre and there seemed to be starlings on the ground everywhere I looked! I found a group that looked more promising than the rest and Hayduke delivered. A couple of birds were sunning themselves up against a curb and he dropped low to the ground and hammered his second starling of the day. When I got to them even his bad foot was wrapped around the starlings neck. He wasn't letting this one go!

My "good" camera is on the fritz so I snapped a quick one with my cell phone:

There had been so many starlings on the ground that I traded him off thinking we might get another for a "true" double but the others must have witnessed their companions demise. I looked for slips on the way home but nothing materialized.

So we caught two, came home with one. One of these days the falconry gods will smile on us and we'll produce a pocketful of starlings, until then, I'm just happy that we're still putting them in the bag on a consitent basis. Kestrels rock.

Fast Food

2010-01-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of time yesterday morning (not much, but just enough) so I buzzed over to a fairly reliable spot. It was extremely satisfying to see a group of about 20 starlings milling around the entrance of a restaurant that had yet to open. The starlings are still out in the mornings, I just need to figure a way to get out earlier on the weekends...

Anyway, Hayduke bawked at the initial slip, I think he knew there were too many eyes on him for it to be a successful slip but just around the corner a couple more starlings were feeding next to the restaurant dumpster and he liked what he saw. He whacked one in a pretty short, direct flight.

Unfortunately, during the ensuing battle and before I could get there to help, the starling dragged Hayduke through some spilled restaurant grease! It smelled nasty and ratted up his feathers pretty good. Hence the ratty picture. Disgusting. I suppose that's the peril you face when hunting suburbia...

I'd had to run another errand before flying but when I walked in the door only 20 minutes after I'd left the house my wife was rather surprised. "You ran the errand AND caught a bird?" She asked. "Pffft, of course! It's Hayduke!" I replied. ;-P

Had the grease incident not happened I would've tried for doubles due to how quickly this hunt took place but it didn't look like Hayduke was in any condition to fly well after that. I looked into ways of removing the grease and for future reference it appears that Dawn dishsoap is the cleanser of choice for oiled up birds. Luckily, Hayduke wasn't completely covered, mostly it was on his tail and a little on his chest. By the time I would've been able to wash him up he appeared to have preened most of it out. His feathers still looked a bit "matted" this morning but I don't think Dawn will be necessary. Mental note: Avoid dumpster birds from here on out!

Tough Slips

2010-01-25T07:51:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since the skunk monkey showed his ugly face but he got us this weekend. It was super windy, and there just wasn't much on the ground. The past few hunts all we've needed was one slip though and we got three so I've got no excuse...except that these were pretty difficult slips!

The first was at a sparrow under an SUV. It was a good 30 yards out and I didn't really think Hayduke had a chance but he wanted to try anyway. It was actually a lot closer than I thought it would be but as suspected the sparrow saw him coming and ducked under the car. Hayduke shot under the car after it (SUV's have much greater clearance than the Ferrari from last week!) but the sparrow bounced off a tire and shot out in the opposite direction and Hayduke exited the other side, caught a gust of wind and ended up on top of the SUV. I flashed a starling wing and he was back on the fist ready for another one.

The next slip was at a fairly reliable sparrow spot. Someone dumps a bunch of seed at the far end of a Walmart parking lot, right next to some hedges. There's always a ton of sparrows but it's so close to the hedges that we have yet to catch one there. It's always a fun flight though so we tried yet again. They all got to the hedge well before Hayduke arrived but he made a good grab at one of the slower ones and ended up looking up into the hedge trying to figure out how he could grab one of those tasty feathered morsels as they scrambled around inside. I gave him a minute to see if he could come up with anything but he knew he was beat and was blown back to the fist (actually blown past the fist because of the wind, but made an adjustment and pulled himself down) when I flashed the starling wing again.

It took quite awhile and a trip in to new territory to find the last slip. I noticed a starling on a light pole in between a fast food joint and a carwash so I pulled in to take a look. As luck would have it there were quite a few starlings on the ground but not really in a slippable position. I glanced across the street and there were a few more in a better position so I headed in that direction but of course, as soon as I arrived the starlings decided to move on. *Sigh* I went back to the car wash to see if any of them had returned there and spotted 3 of them fighting over a piece of bread about across a small ditch under a sparse evergreen 30 yards away. Another tough one. But Hayduke, being Hayduke, shot off after them. The bread kept the starlings distracted until it was too late and he plowed into one! It started screaming and just as I broke into a run to give the assist, it broke free! Nooooooo!!

It had taken about 2 1/2 hours to get that many slips so that did it for us. I suppose you could say we ended on a high note with such a close call but I've gotten so used to coming home with something in the bag I was a little disappointed. They were all great flights though in difficult conditions, I really shouldn't complain. We'll make up for it soon enough...

Posh Dining

2010-01-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

It was another late afternoon, not alot of time hunt, with the concern about not finding birds on the ground becoming all too familiar. We checked our first spot and didn't see a single starling or sparrow on the ground or in the trees...Hmmm. Next spot. I saw a starling on a light post in the museum parking lot so I took a swing through there and did find a couple starlings mixed in with half a dozen sparrows but they were deep in a humongous, head high hedge that wasn't going to provide anything like a productive slip. We moved on thinking we'd maybe check again on our return trip if nothing else materialized. Our next stop was a small shopping area with a couple starlings around but either in trees or hanging out in the dumpster. Again, not slippable. Time was not my friend and I was getting anxious.

A quick check of a nearby movie theatre was unproductive until I saw what looked like a windblown leaf tumble under a row of cars out of the corner of my eye. Sparrow maybe? I headed in that direction and sure enough, two sparrows hanging out just far enough away from the cars that it might be a do-able slip. Since I wasn't seeing anything else, I sent Hayduke after them.

The sparrows saw him coming and dodged under the car right at the last second but that didn't deter Hayduke and he disappeared under the car after them. He didn't come out the other side but I didn't hear a squeak...did he get it? I jogged over, took a peak under the car and:

Nice! He got it! Now the retrieve...he likes to run around with his sparrows. I stood up to let him calm down a bit before I tried to retrieve him and noticed he was under a nice new Mercedes. It might look odd if I was rooting around under a that car when the owner showed up! I looked under again and he decided to move. He hopped over a couple cars and I bent over to check on him again. At least he wasn't under the Mercedes anymore but man, this car didn't have a whole lot of clearance...Oh, nice, a FERRARI!! Not sure the owner of that car would want me anywhere near that one! Apparently Hayduke was looking for a luxurious place to dine!

Luckily, I don't think Hayduke could even posture up enough to pluck under that car so he took the sparrow over to a less intimidating car a couple spots down and I was able to retrieve him without incident. We headed home and I snapped this shot outside my apartment:

So another one in the bag. He's a awfully reliable bird these days. I love the little booger even if he does make me chase him around under expensive cars!

Weekend Warrior

2010-01-10T20:08:00.001-08:00

Hayduke was as fired up as I've ever seen him on Saturday. I don't know if it was the week off of flying or the fact that he was just a tad lower than I've been flying him (at 79 grams) but he was standing on his tippy-toes and rowing his wings as soon as we left the house. I knew something was going to get it.

We left the house much later than I would've liked so I was concerned we wouldn't find many starlings on the ground. My very un-scientific guess is that the starlings leave their roosts after spending a cold night and just want to eat but by the afternoon they've had their fill so they just hang out in trees or on wires unless something really good (like a stray french fry) shows up. So at 2:15 I figured it would be slim pickings.

As luck would have it, our first stop turned up a group of about a dozen starlings dropping out of a small tree to pick through some snow beneath them. Perfect!...until a little old lady pulls up in a jeep and parks right next to them!! We were clear at the back of the parking lot and their were plenty of closer spots, why she had to pick that one I'll never know but miracle of miracles the starlings didn't flush! Now my only problem was the little old lady was about to exit her vehicle guaranteeing the starlings would flush. I could slip Hayduke now and take my chances with the little old lady or pass it up in hopes that the starlings would return...Well, Hayduke decided I was taking too long thinking about it. I didn't have a firm grip on his jesses and he wanted a starling. He left the fist and cruised in low across the pavement slamming his victim and scattering the rest of the group just as the little old lady stepped out of her car.

As expected the starling was screaming its head off as I jogged over to finish the job.
Little old lady: "Is it okay" (Presumably thinking the bird she'd heard screaming was the bird now on my fist.
Me: "Yup, he's fine."
Little old lady: "Is he yours?"
Me: "Yup."
Little old lady: "What kind of bird is he?"
Me: "An American Kestrel. He just caught a starling for lunch, that's the bird you heard screaming."
Little old lady: "He caught a starling? Good for him!!" (Complete with a big smile and a thumbs up!)

That's the kind of interaction with the public that I like!

So first slip of the day and a bird in the bag. It looked like a good day to try for multiples. Alas, after an hour of searching, my initial fears about no birds on the ground proved true. The first slip turned out to be the only slip and we ended with only the one in the bag:

I then headed over to a nearby industrial park to watch my friend fly his goshawk. We found tons of bunnies but the gos was always just inches away. One performed some pretty evasive maneuvers and ducked into the hole in the bottom left of this picture just as the gos slammed the ground where it should have been. The story is pretty much written in the snow:

After another missed flight we had a great setup for a reflush as the bunny had taken cover in some plywood that would've been easy enough to get him out of. The gos had taken a stand in a nearby tree so my friend tossed out his lure to call her down and was in the process of getting her back on the fist when a large dark shape sailed in at them from my right. It was a Harris hawk coming in either for the lure or my friend's bird, not sure which! After being shooed away by my friend the Harris landed about 20 feet away from me. With no owner in sight I debated on whether or not to grab the bird's jesses so we could get a flight on the bunny we knew had taken cover. It's not a smart idea to mess with another falconer's bird though so I just shooed it away. It took a stand at the top of a nearby pine tree and the owner appeared momentarily. He was having a difficult time getting the bird down though so we abandoned the reflush and headed elsewhere to try and get in one or two more slips before the light left us. We did find a few more bunnies but they all avoided the gos one way or another and lived to see another day.

Perhaps the highlight of this outing though was the fact that it was the first time my 3 year old has joined me in the field chasing bunnies. He was a trooper!! We gave him a flushing stick and we'd point to a bush and tell him to scare the bunnies and he'd sneak up real quiet counting 1...2...3...GO! whacking the bush with all his might. He had a grin from ear to ear after every bunny he flushed and as we made our way back to the car in the dark he asked when we were going to do it again. An excellent falconer in the making! Good times as always.

C.S.I.: Birdfeeder

2010-01-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

I like this little mystery presented by the Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Bloody birdfeeder in need of crime scene reconstruction!

Naturally as a falconer my initial response is hawk attack, most likely a Cooper's, but that's some pretty good blood coverage, a quick snatch and dash like a Cooper's would perform wouldn't leave that much blood, would it? And if it was a hawk that caught and ate a bluejay (see note about a single blue jay feather) there would be lots of plucking involved so there would be more feathers...Although he does say there are lots of squirrels that frequent the feeder too...Red-tail pounding a bushy-tail? Don't know that the feeder itself would survive such an attack. Are there ground dwelling possibilities? Coyote?

I dunno, what do ya'll think?? (Maybe comment over on the other blog...it's his mystery not mine! :-)

Catching Up

2010-01-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately vacation has ended and I'm back at work which means I'm back to flying mostly on weekends until the days get longer, but this does give me a chance to catch up a bit.

My last post on Wednesday was about our streak ending but fortunately that was the only blip in an otherwise fantastic week (and even Wednesday he flew great). Hayduke went on to catch birds Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Here's a brief recap:

Thursday I headed out with a friend that is thinking of becoming a falconer and another falconer buddy of mine. The wannabe saw Hayduke catch Monday's starling, but the other falconer hadn't seen him fly yet this year. I'll admit I felt a bit of pressure but I really had nothing to worry about. The slips seemed to be far and in between for some reason but after a few missed slips we found a few feeding underneath an evergreen tree just on the otherside of a snowbank. Hayduke used the snowbank for cover and then popped up and over snagging one in a nice little flight. Unfortunately I'd forgotten the good camera so I had to snap this shot with my cell phone:

It had taken quite awhile to finally get that bird but we decided to try for Hayduke's first double. We had a few more close calls and on the last slip of the day he even piggy-backed a starling for a couple seconds before it shook him off but we ended with only the one.

The next day I was out by myself again but with the charge from my wife to pick up our son's friend at 10:00 and bring him back to the house. Since I left the house at 7:30 I wasn't too worried and things started off great. I was finding starlings EVERYWHERE. I found one spot with a couple hundred birds hanging out. I snapped this pic after probably half of the starlings on the line flushed!

Despite birds everywhere and probably close to 20 slips (a couple where Hayduke even rolled the starlings), he just couldn't hang on to any of them. 10:00 was fast approaching and I needed to head toward my son's friend's house. A last ditch swing through a small shopping center turned up a good group of starlings but none of them were in an ideal position to get a slip. I debated moving on or waiting them out and decided that it was now or never. At about 9:55 one finally hopped a curb to a spot where Hayduke had a chance. In the clinch, Hayduke delivered making a nice little one footed snag. I showed up at my friend's son's house with Hayduke munching on a starling head! Luckily that friend's father is the wannabe falconer so I don't think it was too traumatic!

On Saturday I hooked up with the wannabe and the other falconer again. The wannabe and myself had to be back home at 10:00 which gave us only about 2 hours of hawking time. The plan this time was to fly the other falconer's goshawk first to give the wannabe a taste of bunny flights. Hayduke was a couple grams overweight anyway so flying him a little later seemed like a good plan. As luck would have it though, the gos was overweight too and the other falconer was hoping we could fly Hayduke first! After a bit of discussion we decided to look for an easy industrial park bunny for the gos and see how it reacted. Well, that didn't work out so well. The bunny we found didn't interest the gos at all and it decided to explore the industrial park for a bit. It wasn't that big of a deal but it ate up some precious hawking time. By the time we had the gos safely back in the truck it was 9:30 and we were 10 minutes away from the closest spot to fly Hayduke.

We arrived at the chosen shopping center and a quick once over revealed only one group of starlings which subsequently flushed before we could get the slip. Time was running down and prospects did not look good. Just then probably a dozen sparrows fluttered down in some hedges on the edge of the parking lot...followed by a dozen more. Now Hayduke was still heavier than I'd ever flown him but I wasn't worried about catching starlings because he can't carry them anywhere anyway. Sparrows would be a concern. He carried the last one and with time being a factor I didn't want to have to worry about chasing him around...but if we were going to get a slip, this was it. Hayduke left the fist and absolutely crushed one of the sparrows that had ventured too far from the hedge! After watching him battle starlings the last little while the sparrow seemed a piece of cake. The wannabe was amazed at how fast Hayduke had it dispatched.

Now for the pick-up...He dragged his kill under one car, then another when a car decided to park in the empty spot next to where he was. We garnered some quizzical looks from the driver who wondered why I was looking under cars. Someone with a shopping cart rattled by and Hayduke decided to move to the next parked car again but luckily this one was a fairly jacked up truck that allowed easy access for me. I laid on my belly, flashed a starling wing and Hayduke hopped right up. I pocketed the sparrows and backed out from underneath the truck just as the owner of the vehicle wheeled around the back. A quick explaination and she was fine with the whole thing. Hard not to be enamored with little Hayduke! We hopped in our car and were all back just in time. I snapped this pic just outside my apartment:

So all in all, a fantastic week of hawking with 5 starlings and a sparrow brought to the bag. If only I didn't have to work...

One More Before the Streak Ended

2009-12-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

Tuesday took even longer than Monday. I wasn't able to get out until around 11:30 and there never seems to be as many starlings on the ground in the afternoon.

It started out looking like it was going to be a short day, or possibly a day to try for multiples. I found a couple starlings milling around a PetSmart and a single was in a perfect position to slip. I think it actually flushed without knowing that Hayduke was on his way but regardless, Hayduke spanked him with an audible *thunk* about 3 feet off the ground and just wasn't able to hang on. It wasn't more than two minutes later where Hayduke put feet on another one underneath an evergreen tree but it scraped him off on the lower branches.

Then things got tough. We found a few slips and he had some close calls but things just weren't falling into place. I had been out my standard two hours so I checked in with the boss (wife) and asked if we had any pressing plans or if it would be alright if I stayed out a little longer to try and beat the skunk monkey. I got the okay and continued on.

I ventured in to new territory where I'd hawked a bit last year but hadn't checked out this year. There were a few starlings about but none of them slippable. I was about to call it a day and conceed that our streak was broken when I noticed a whole pile of starlings with their landing gear out headed to a restaurant around the corner from where I was. I made my way over and found a good group fighting over some leftovers and a couple more playing around in the snow. Hayduke skipped the ones fighting and plowed into this one keeping our streak alive!

Alas, our streak came to an end today (Wednesday). I got out even later than yesterday and while I did get a few slips, as mentioned above, there seems to be less the later I'm out. The slips we did get were some pretty difficult ones, and to be honest, I'm impressed he even tried for them. He was going for anything and everything, even taking "blind" slips where the starlings were over a rise and therefore not visible from where he left the fist. He even tried to take one perched in an evergreen tree! It just wasn't in the cards today though, we'll just have to make up for it tomorrow!

And another!

2009-12-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

It took a little longer today but we bagged another. The first few slips were from a rather scattered flock picking through a dumpster behind a shopping center. There was a big gully just beyond the dumpster with good cover and there were even more starlings in the bushes and trees down there. Most slips were standard misses but on one slip Hayduke missed the starlings by the dumpter and as they retreated to the bushes in the gully he followed! It was maybe a 50 yard flight and he went straight in the bushes after the one he was pursuing. The rest of the flock erupted out of the bushes and I saw Hayduke disappear into the cover after one but shortly after he popped back up empty footed and returned to my fist. Fun little flight though! A couple of crows moved in and were looking to bully Hayduke so even though there were still starlings around, we headed to another spot.

We found another good flock at the second spot. There were two slips that were as close as you could come without putting one in the bag. He had a foot on one of them but it twisted out of his grasp at the last second. Despite probably a dozen slips Hayduke was still game but time was running down. I decided to check the museum where I caught the one between two cars as a last ditch effort to beat the skunk monkey.

As I pulled in to the parking lot it didn't look promising. I didn't see any starlings on the light poles and the hedges appeared empty. Just then 3 starlings popped up from some hedges about 20 yards away. I made the slip and Hayduke tackled this one. It was quite the battle on the ground as Hayduke didn't have the best grip. It appeared he had it by the butt and was being dragged around quite a bit. He actually lost the grip on one foot just as I arrived and the starling almost got away but Hayduke readjusted and had it's neck just as I put a hand on the starling and finished it off. We headed to a nearby snowbank for our victory shots. No time to try for multiples today.

On a Roll...

2009-12-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

Not much to this one. First slip of the day again. 8-10 starlings picking at some frozen garbage in a Walmart parking lot accompanied by a couple of crows. The crows made me hesitate since a buddy of mine had his kestrel driven off and injured by crows. As long as they were hanging around I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the slip but the starlings were giving the crows first go at the goods anyway and were hanging out in the trees waiting their turn. The moment the crows left though the starlings swarmed and I made the slip. With the early morning sun at our back they never saw him coming:

It was a mugging for sure, but we'll take it! The crows returned quickly at the sound of the alarmed starlings but I got to Hayduke before they even knew what was going on. They looked rather omnious following me around while I tried to find a good spot to take a couple photos so I ended up heading home and snapping the photos outside my apartment.

If you don't count yesterday when it was snowing and we didn't get a single slip, then we've taken starlings each of our last 4 outings. I've got the next week off of work too, this should be fun...

Starling Number 3!

2009-12-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

We headed out around 10 a.m. on Saturday, a little later than I would've liked to. There's just too many people out and about after about 9:30, especially this time of year! My usual spots were, as suspected, quite crowded. I did get a couple of sparrow slips in some hedges on the edge of a parking lot but despite my kicking those sparrows did NOT want to leave the cover after they knew Hayduke was in the area so we moved on.

I saw a few starlings drop into a grassy area in a shopping center across from where I was so I headed over that way and much to my astonishment I found that the "grassy area" was a cemetary...in the middle of the shopping center! It was the weirdest spot for a cemetary I've ever seen with a carwash and Wendy's literally right next to it and surrounded by the shopping center parking lot on 3 sides! I wonder if it's just been there forever and just got built around. Anyway, most the starlings were on the inside, or sitting on top of, a tall wrought iron fence surrounding the cemetary but there was a single picking at some trash in the middle of the parking lot. Surprisingly enough, this parking lot was pretty empty but that worked against us as the starling saw Hayduke coming long before he got there. He tail chased for a second or two but quickly saw he was beat. I called him back to the fist and we headed elsewhere.

I actually suspected my hawking was over at that point as I had to run some errands. As I headed to my various appointments however, I noticed a good group of starlings fly over me on the road and they looked to be putting down behind a museum. Worth a shot, right? Sure enough, the ones I'd seen flying had landed and joined at least 50 more milling around the hedges surrounding the parking lot and picking through the grass in the empty lot next to it. As luck would have it though, just as I was getting ready for a slip, a car pulled up right next to the hedges and the "slippable" starlings bumped. They didn't go far, in fact they just went to the shrubs next to the museum, but they landed in between a couple of parked cars that made it a difficult slip. There was a car, an empty slot where the starlings were feeding, and another parked car. Well, never try never know I thought and slipped Hayduke. He threaded the parked cars and slammed his 3rd starling up against the curb. When I got to him he had one foot around it's neck and the other foot around its beak, apparently saying, "Shut your mouth sucka, you're mine!"

I snapped some nicer photo's (like the one above) with my better camera but I love his posture in this pic. He just looks like one bad dude!

On a side note, Hayduke has taken starlings the last three times we've been out. Yeah, if you look at the date on those posts, there are quite a few days in between each of those so I only post that to say even with limited time and not flying everyday (that'll change come spring...), kestrels can still be quite effective. There's no excuse not to kill game with these guys!

Making It Look Easy

2009-12-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

One slip, one bird again for Hayduke's second starling!

It was a great little flight at a group of 5 or 6 starlings feeding on the edge of an island in a Walmart parking lot. They flushed just ahead of us but Hayduke left the fist with a mission and powered into this one about 6 feet off the ground! His first catch out of the air.

He's turning out to be a great little bird. From starting with grasshoppers to catching starlings out of the air, I have to say I'm pretty darn pleased.

Hayduke's Turkey Day

2009-11-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Your mission should you choose to accept it:

Slip out between the morning "turkey bowl" and afternoon feast, only an hour of hawking time, and bag a bird, wait, let's make that Hayduke's first STARLING...

One slip, one bird, MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Weekend Update

2009-11-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

We had a good day on Saturday but came home empty handed.

I made some lighter jesses on Friday night (2.7g total) but the snaps on these ones didn't seem all that solid. The first slip of the day proved my concerns valid. He was slipped at a good group of sparrows near an evergreen tree surrounded by hedges. The sparrows ducked into the evergreen tree and he plowed in after them, chasing them out in to the hedge on foot before he decided he'd missed his chance. I called him back to the fist and realized he no longer had jesses on!! They must've popped off in the foot race! Luckily I'd brought my heavier back up pair so I snapped those on before looking for the wayward jesses under the evergreen. Alas, they had disappeared without a trace so we spent the rest of the morning with the heavier jesses again. (I did swing by Hobby Lobby to pick up more snaps to make lighter jesses again on my way home...)

A quick check at some of my other spots only produced one more slip, another one at sparrows, and again they got back in the hedge before Hayduke could connect. Time was getting short so I decided to head back toward home thinking I'd check the shopping center where Hayduke caught the sparrow last week. There's a restaurant there that always seems to attract a good group of starlings in the morning and sure enough, they were there. Hayduke took a slip at one of them but it was a little too far out and got off the gound before he could get close. He landed on a handicapped parking sign just as I heard a *thunk*. His appearance had caused at least one starling to slam itself into the retaurant windows! But it wasn't the one Hayduke was after and he didn't notice. The dazed starling recovered quickly made good on its retreat. I'm pleased he's going after starlings now though!

The next slip was at a mixed group of sparrows and starlings next to a dumpster. In all honesty I don't think Hayduke liked the slip in the first place but a gentle toss sent him on his way. It was a half hearted flight though and everything got up well before he arrived. The final slip was a fun one. A short slip at four or five sparrows next to some pallets. Hayduke almost slammed one on the initial slip but it just squirted out underneath him and dove into the pallets. I'd read about "pallet hawking" in the Mullenix book but this was my first time experiencing it. Hayduke went on the hunt crawling through the pallets after the fleeing sparrows and I did my best to assist but we were obvious amateurs and the sparrows eventually found one of the many unblocked exits and made a quick escape. Kinda fun to watch Hayduke in the pallets though.

I needed to get home but thought I'd swing through the Walmart parking lot one more time before heading home. Before I'd even pulled into the parking lot though I could see that people had started to wake up, the early morning shoppers were joined by food bank volunteers collecting just outside the entrance. I decided to forego any slips there might have been due to all the people but no sooner had that thought formed when I saw a streamlined shape gliding past me to the left. A passage male coops pumped once or twice and almost snagged a sparrow under a parked car just in front of me and directly in front of the front doors of Walmart! So I got to see one last flight, just not from my bird! Of course none of the shoppers or the volunteers noticed it.

The coops pitched up and landed on a light pole so I whipped out the camera to take a quick shot thinking that all the commotion in front of the building would send the coops on its way quickly but it just sat there. I was able to walk directly underneath it and snap a few photos (these were with a regular point and shoot with not much of a zoom!):

Hayduke was understandably unnerved by the appearance of the Coopers Hawk (a coops would eat Hayduke just as soon as a sparrow) so we called it a day and headed home. All in all, a fun morning.

That's More Like It

2009-11-09T11:27:00.001-08:00

I only had an hour or so before I had to get to a meeting so I buzzed over to a nearby shopping center that usually produces at least one slip. (By the way, I've found that first thing in the morning is many times more productive than afternoon or evening. More birds, less people, all in all a good deal.)

I spot a large group of starlings behind a restaurant feeding on a grassy slope that leads down to some sort of irrigation pond or storm drain type watery area. There were probably 50 or so birds with their heads down, butts in the air but Hayduke didn't like what he saw for some reason and wouldn't take the slip. I tried to encourage him by giving a little toss but that just caused him to spread his wings and clamp down on my fist and his little flap scattered the starlings.

One part of the group headed over to another restaurant (this was at like 7 a.m. so everything was closed) so I headed in that direction but a giant crow came down in the middle of starlings so I thought it best to avoid that slip and continued on.

Another splinter group from the original flock was in front of the first restaurant and a single was dawdling by the curb in perfect position. Hayduke took the slip but the starling squirted out just beneath him with a loud squawk. But that's the second starling he's gone after whereas he was flat out refusing them before so I was happy.

I got him back on the fist and headed to another section of the shopping center. A crowd of seagulls was gathering around some trash near a shopping cart return area so I decided to scope the situation out. The seagulls quickly scarfed down the big pieces and left, leaving only crumbs...perfect for my sparrow friends to clean up. The seagulls had just barely left when 4 sparrows flitted over for clean up duty. Hayduke targeted one with its back turned and pounded it in a short 20 ft. flight.

Then the fun began. The tumble took him underneath a parked car so I jogged over and "stood guard" while he finished the sparrow off. But an early morning shopper rattled by with a cart which freaked him out and he carried the sparrow about 20 feet underneath another parked car. I walked over and glanced under the other car to confirm he was there just as the owner of the car rattled up with her shopping cart probably wondering why I was looking under her car. That caused Hayduke to really carry this time and I saw him glide about 50 yards under an isolated truck parked next to an island out in a far corner of the parking lot. I shrugged to the owner of the second car and said, "My bird was hiding under your car..." which garnered a quizzical look, and then jogged off to follow my wayward kestrel.

Luckily Hayduke is small enough that I don't think he can get much height carrying a sparrow. A 20 gram bird equals a quarter of his body weight, but maybe I was just lucky this time that he ended up somewhere accessible.

This time, out of range of the early shoppers he settled in and started plucking. I laid next to the island watching and taking pictures (wondering what would happen if the owner of this vehicle showed up...) and then finally was able to reach under and grab the sparrow, gently lifting Hayduke and his prize back on to my fist for one more victory photo before returning to my car and heading home just in time to make my meeting.

#2 in the bag.

Encouraged

2009-11-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Today was our best day yet! Only thing that could've made it better was actually catching something!

I suppose you could count that first kill as our "best day yet" but it was a fairly short, one slip one catch day whereas today we had lots of great flights and just couldn't seal the deal.

One of best things about today was that Hayduke chased (and just barely missed) a starling. So far he's been reluctant to take them on so to watch him go after one with gusto was an encouraging sign. It was the first slip of the day too! A large-ish group of 20-30 birds picking at the leftover goodies in front of a closed restaurant. He shot off the fist and headed straight for a bird with its back turned. The rest of the birds got up as soon as he left the fist but his target was oblivious. It jinked right at the last second but it was so close I think he may have hit it or at least grazed it's back with a foot!

The remainder of the 4 or 5 slips were at sparrows and all of them were awfully close. Not sure why he wasn't able to nab at least one of them. He may have been a tad high. After his last slip he dinked around buzzing the glove a few times and was buzzed by a wild female before I tossed out the lure with a starling wing attached. He even buzzed the lure once before binding to it and trying to drag it away. So he was definitely high at that point and it wasn't the best ending to the morning but before that the flights were great and he returned promptly after each slip. Definitely an encouraging morning and I'm looking forward to getting out again asap.

Hunting with Cheetahs

2009-11-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know how I never knew about a site called Falconry-Videos.com before but I found it today! I haven't been able to look around too much yet but I like what I see so far (how could I NOT!). Here's a video I did watch, not exactly falconry but...cheetah-ry? FANTASTIC!!

I'm excited to see what else this site has to offer!

Update

2009-11-02T12:01:00.001-08:00

Well, not much to report since that first kill. This past week we got dumped on by a killer snow storm that dumped around 2 feet on us so we spent a lot of time indoors. We did get out this weekend but only got two rather weak slips on sparrows. He chased both of them under parked SUV's and I saw him throw his foot out just missing on one of them but as they say "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." It'll take more than two slips a week to build this guy into a proficient birder so I've definitely got to step it up a notch. Hopefully the snow didn't send ALL the birds South...

But others are having more luck than I am, my good buddy Rick caught his first two rabbits this weekend with his passage goshawk. Since I don't have any pics of my own I'll go ahead and post this one of his first (caught just after I left him, of course!):

Congrats Rick! Hopefully I'll add to the headcount with my bird soon...

The Switch Has Been Flipped

2009-10-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday I was out early since my wife and kids were going to be coming home after being away for 3 weeks and I needed to clean the house! I knew I was going to need most the day to clean but I really wanted to get out hawking...

I actually wasn't all that keen on the prospects. I had shown Hayduke what should have been a fairly simple slip at starlings on Friday evening and he didn't even flinch. He was a bit higher than I would've liked him but only by a gram or so (79g vs. 77.8g). So I had my noose carpet along and was more out for baggies than actually hunting.

First stop at a Wal-mart parking lot where I caught my baggie starling last week. Last week was a lot colder though so I think it helped bring the starlings down. There were a few hanging around on light posts but none were interested in coming down to my noose carpet. I thought I saw some sparrows fly into a hedge so I got Hayduke out and kicked around but nothing came out. No sense wasting my limited time there so I hopped back in the car and headed over to a larger shopping center where there's always tons of starlings.

As I pulled into the shopping center I thought I saw a couple starlings cruising low with their landing gear down on a far edge. I headed in that direction and sure enough, someone had spilled something the night before and there was maybe half a dozen starlings munching on the leftovers. Noose carpet or bird? I figured I'd get the bird out, if he went for them great, if not and they bumped I'd put the noose carpet over what they'd been eating. Well being pre-occupied getting the bird out, I missed all the starlings leaving! So it was a no-go on either option but then I noticed Hayduke bobbing his head toward some ivy against the wall of a building...a closer look revealed a lesser spill on the ground in front of the ivy with 4 or 5 sparrows staking a claim. So I headed in that direction.

Hayduke knew they were there but wasn't showing quite the "intensity" that Dulci showed. The sparrows were completely oblivious so I wasn't going to pass the opportunity up waiting for Hayduke to make up his mind. I gave a gentle toss in their direction and I guess that's all the encouragment he needed. He bolted off the fist and plowed into the middle of the group about 15 ft. away, snatching up his first kill!

That was the moment I realized I'd forgotten any kind of camera, even my cell phone, at home! It was a beautiful sight to seem him with his wings spread munching on a freshly caught sparrow. I wasn't sure how he'd be with a sparrow in his feet as I approached but showing him a small tidbit was all it took to get him to sit still. I reached in, scooped up him and the sparrow and headed back to the car.

I snapped this crappy picture with my cell phone when I got home. I guess its better than nothing:

It was nothing too spectacular but I'm pretty pleased to have that first kill under my belt. It may take some more work to get him on starlings but we'll get there. We're on the board now and he's got the idea. I was out this afternoon and he wanted every sparrow we passed. Unfortunately none of them were in any position to actually get a slip. He did get one chance at a group in front of a restaurant but they saw him long before he actually got there. We'll try again tomorrow.

Home Delivery

2009-10-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've been needing to get Hayduke some baggie starlings but haven't had much luck lately until today, and talk about LUCK!!

After my morning shopping I noticed a bunch of starlings hanging out outside Walmart so I tossed out a noose carpet with some bread on it and caught one in short order. Wahoo! Popped it in a box and headed home. I thought that was good enough but here comes the amazing part:

I'm sitting at home with the starling in the bathroom making all sorts of noise banging around in its box. I think I'm getting stereo sound cause I swear I hear more noise coming from behind me in the laundry room. The starling in the box stops for a second and sure enough, the noise continues! I thought it might be a mouse for a second but the noise was very "birdy". I pull out a flashlight and shine it behind the dryer and notice that the dryer hose is bouncing around, I tap on it and hear something darts back in to the dryer vent. Long story short, I pop off the dryer hose and wait for whatever is stuck in the vent to come back and out pops a starling!! I had to chase it around the house for a bit but now I have two baggies for him! How lucky is that?? A starling trap that leads right into my house! Too funny.

As far as his foot goes, there is still some swelling but he's not acting like it's bothering him at all so I figure I'll offer him a baggie today and see how it goes.

*Update*

Hayduke on baggie starling #1

Chasing Bunnies

2009-10-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

I went out with some friends this past weekend to chase some bunnies with their birds and well, I guess I got caught up in the moment. They just sent me this sequence with the caption, "Who needs a red-tail when you've got Isaac?"

Can you spot the bunny in this first picture??

(Click to enlarge...look closely)

It flushes and I'm off...

I was trying to flush the bunny toward my friends but it ran the wrong way. And no, I didn't catch it. If only I had wings... :-)

Foot Update

2009-10-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping Hayduke in his box during the day hoping that some calm and quiet time will let the foot heal. I've just been tossing the lure out for him in the evening and he doesn't seem to have issues hitting it with both feet.

The foot is still swollen but when I opened the box this morning he had the opposite leg tucked up, therefore putting all his weight on the swollen foot, so it must not hurt that bad (if at all?). It was an encouraging sign but the swelling still has me concerned. I'll continue to keep an eye on it but hopefully we'll be able to hunt again this weekend...

One Month Anniversary

2009-10-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today marks the completion of 4 weeks since I took Hayduke off the trap.

This past weekend we had our first free flight and first hunt. Unfortunately, nothing spectacular to report. He wasn't interested in the numerous starling slips that presented themselves (I'll have to work on that) but would've gone after some sparrows had I not been stupid and held him back. It was a silly mistake on my part. I'd pulled into a parking space to kick some bushes at Walmart and a sparrow happen to be hopping underneath a parked car a few feet away. Hayduke slicked down and looked ready to go but the sparrow hopped behind a tire and out of sight. Just then Hayduke bated toward it but I held on to the jesses wanting to save the effort for the sparrows in the bushes. Of course, when I kicked the bushes and dozens of sparrows bolted out, he didn't go after them. Shoulda just let him go at the first one even if it was behind a tire...Oh well.

We ended our hunt by going after grasshoppers again. We caught three in short order. It's much easier to hunt grasshoppers when there's no creance attached! I think 2 of the 3 were caught after they initially dodged his attack and he flew them down several feet away.

There is some bad news to report however. I noticed on Sunday that he was favoring his left leg and upon closer examination his foot is a bit swollen. I've checked it over and can't find any visible damage. The bottom of the foot looks fine, the anklets aren't too tight, and he will put pressure on it if compelled to do so but something definitely happened. I'm leaving him in his giant hood today and hoping that its nothing more serious than a sprain. I can't think of a time when he might have injured it but it may have been something as simple as slamming one of those grasshoppers the wrong way. He was standing on it this morning when I fed him but it was still swollen so we'll see how he looks this evening.

Here's hoping for the best.

First Kills

2009-09-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today we got our first kills!!

Yup, we took multiples our first time out. 6 or 7 in fact (I kinda lost count). Admittedly some were blatant muggings but he did take a couple right out of the air!

...Okay, okay, they were grasshoppers but I had fun!

Saturday was his first time outside and after a less than stellar session I decided he needed more exposure to the outdoors so I decided to take him on a little walk today. Knowing that the grasshoppers are still out in full force I popped the creance (30lb. fishing line attached to a light sandbag) in my pocket thinking that if he showed any interest I might as well let him go as long as he would be attached to something. He was a bit higher than I had him Saturday so I wasn't sure what would happen but sure enough before we'd even hit the main field I was headed to he started head bobbing at a grasshopper. I attached the creance and took a couple steps and he plopped down on our first kill of the season! Wahoo! :-)

He didn't even try to carry. He bit off it's head, chowed down on it's body and I lifted him back on the fist. I un-wound about 15 feet of the creance, held it in loops around my free hand and headed out into the main field where the grasshoppers are thick.

A big one with yellow wings (he doesn't like the ones with red wings apparently...) got up in front of us and he zipped off the fist and caught the sucker in midair about 10 feet in front of me! Alas (or thank goodness?), the creance brought him up short just after he caught it and he must've let it go when he hit the ground. I don't know how far he would've gone had the creance not been attached...

He didn't seem to happy about the unexpected drop to the ground but hopped back to my fist easy enough when I approached. I wandered over by the bike bath where two big grasshoppers were flirting and he dashed off to nail one of 'em with plenty of creance to spare. He kind of flared when I approached so I just stood back and he downed the bug right there on the bike path. A short whistle when he finished and he hopped back to the fist! Cool!

That did it for the morning session as I had to head off to church. I hadn't planned on him actually catching anything but it worked out perfect since he needed a little tidbit before I left. Both grasshoppers only equaled 2 grams!

After church he weighed in still slightly above where I would've liked him to be but lower than he was in the morning so with the creance attached again we headed back to the grasshopper field. I had a little more line out this time but didn't really need it. He was definitely more keyed in to the grasshoppers at the lower weight. He smacked one right off the bat and then jumped to the fist for a tidbit of starling breast when he finished. I had my cell phone camera with me this time:

That pattern repeated itself 2 or 3 more times. He'd grab a grasshopper, eat it quickly right where he was and then jump to the fist for a 'real meat' tidbit. He showed real tenacity when one grasshopper dodged his first attacked by hopping about six feet away. He hit the ground where it had been and immediately hopped back up to fly it down where it landed. Just like a goshawk!! :-)

He had one more flight where he took the bug right out of the air. It was a good 20 foot flight! I ran toward him to give him as much slack in the creance as I could but it eventually brought him down again. Again, who knows how far he would've gone, but this time he kept the grasshopper in his foot. As I approached he lifted off the ground and actually brought the grasshopper to my fist!

I forget how many we ended up catching in the afternoon session, I think it was 4 or 5 though.

For the most part I think I would've been okay without the creance but there were a couple times like the one he caught flying, and one where he missed toward the end after he'd filled up on a few, where I don't know if I would've gotten him back. I need to have him a gram or so lower and work on some instant response at longer distances before I'm comfortable free flying...but today was fun! I think it was a good opportunity for him to "hunt" with me and get used to that whole procedure. I need to get some baggie sparrows to toss for him in the field and then we'll really start having some fun.

Good times await!

Progress Report

2009-09-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

We're doing well. At 78g he still doesn't have "instant" response but we're getting close. (But we haven't gotten outside yet either...) He did come to the glove without a tidbit yesterday so that's a good sign.

I gave him a couple of baggie sparrows over the weekend and it's clear that sparrows are a new thing for him. I think he was a bug bird before I got him (his first casting was grasshopper parts...). I almost had to set him on top of the first baggie. He killed it quickly though and then spent the next hour plucking it! If I hadn't broken into it for him he may still be there today! The second baggie he was a little more enthusiastic about but the sparrow managed to evade him twice before he finally got a foot on it. Again, he killed it quickly and then plucked, and plucked, and plucked. He got the entire sparrow both times though so hopefully he'll have connected a good meal to killing his own food. There were a couple of really positive things though: he didn't try and go anywhere with the sparrow despite my two year old running around and even jumping on my back while I was laying next to the bird. (Dulcinea tried to hide everytime she caught a sparrow.) and when he finished the sparrow he jumped to my fist for a final tidbit both times. So that's encouraging. I think it will take some work to get him on starlings.

His one vice is screaming. He yells at me almost constantly when I get close and sometimes food won't even muffle the noise. *KYAK KYAK KYAK kyhmp kyhmp hymp (as the food goes down) and then back to KYAK KYAK KYAK* It's quite annoying. I wonder if he's just a really young bird? I know imprint kestrels scream all the time, and luckily Hayduke is quiet if I keep my distance, but he can really get loud. I almost have to go outside if I want to work with him when the kids are going to sleep. Hopefully once he's in the groove and hunting his own food he'll lay off on the siren. Loud, repeatative noises are one of my worst pet peeves!

Week One Update

2009-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Between 82 and 85 grams he'll make a few jumps to the fist. About 3 feet has been his longest. I occasionally have to "prime" him by giving him a tidbit on the perch and he'll still think about it for a few second before coming but we're on the right track. This evening he should be around 80 grams and be a little more motivated to make longer leaps. I have this hang up with not wanting to let birds loose weight, I think if I had dropped him lower a little earlier we would be farther along by now but for being just a week in to it I think we're doing fine.

He's still got quite a bit of "taming" to do. He still gapes (opens his mouth) at me when I approach him on his perch and will try and bate away but he calms down fairly quickly once on my glove. He rarely bates from there and when he does, he's quick to regain the fist. I spent a whole lot of time this weekend with him on my fist and even caught him napping there at one point. Any movement still freaks him out but that will pass with more exposure. Dulcinea was so rock solid that she wouldn't bat an eyelid when I wandered around the NAFA meet (falconer's convention of sorts...) with her on the fist and people everywhere. I remember one time when she had missed a sparrow and landed on a parked car, a lady walked right up to her expecting her to fly off and she just sat there. Man, she was a good bird!

We'll get there with Hayduke, I'll let him dictate the pace but I think we're moving along well. If things go according to plan hopefully he'll be hunting by the end of the month. There are starlings that need killing:

The Most Hated Bird in the U.S.

Starling flocks take toll on economy, environment

Day Two -- Success!!

2009-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday I wasn't able to get out trapping, but Monday being a holiday, I loaded up the traps, picked up Rick and headed out at first light. We started seeing kestrels immediately.

Our first bird came down to a mouse:

A male with another one of those funky mid-moult tails:

Definitely an older bird so a quick photo and release:

The second bird we found on a lonely, dusty back road eating a grasshopper. He was way up at the top of a tall telephone pole but we made the drop anyway. He buzzed the trap once but landed right above the trap on the telephone wire. It wasn't more than a minute before he dropped straight down and we had him:

Another one with a funky tail! I guess it's just so early in the year that kestrels are usually still moulting at this time? We saw another male that we weren't able to trap whose tail was literally just a stub. I had my doubts as to whether or not he was even a kestrel when we first saw. I kept telling Rick, "It's tail just doesn't look right to be a kestrel." I thought maybe we'd mistaken a meadowlark or starling for a kestrel but as we drove up to get a better look he bumped and sure enough it was just a tail-less kestrel! Crazy.

This boy was TINY!! Another quick photo and a release:

We hit a slow patch for an hour or so but finally hit the jackpot. 3 birds all hanging out together, so we figured it must be a group of young siblings still palling around after fledging. They were pretty jumpy and we had to chase them around for awhile before we finally got a good set. The male came right down to our mouse:

We looked him over and sure enough, he appeared to be a passage (first year) bird. A full tail, streaked breast, barring all the way up between his shoulders, exactly what I wanted! We rushed back to Rick's house and put equipment on him, 111g with jesses and a hood. He cast later in the day and after several mutes ended up right around 98g. He's a tiny little guy but I think he'll do well.

Introducing Hayduke:

Looking forward to a great season with him!

Day One

2009-09-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Neither were passage birds but we did catch two. A good way to start trapping season, especially since its still so warm and the kestrels are keeping pretty full on grasshoppers.

This first one came down to a sparrow. It was tempting to keep her, look at those monster starling killing feet! (Click to englarge picture)

The second bird was an interesting catch for a couple reasons. We had thrown the BC with the sparrow in it in between two kestrels and backed off a hundred yards. We then noticed a third kestrel sitting right above us! I had brought some mice and was keeping them in an additional BC that I hadn't finished covering with nooses the night before, only one side of it was covered. We figured we couldn't pass up the opportunity though and decided to toss the mice out under this third kestrel. She hopped around on the trap for awhile but eventually got caught! As we were looking her over we noticed that she was till growing in her tail and it was the most interesting moulting pattern I've ever seen!

You can see the central tail feathers are fully grown in but the rest of the feathers are at varying stages the further out you go with the outter most feathers being the shortest. I was amazed at the uniformity of such a late moult!

Anyway, here was a victory shot we took shortly before both birds were released:

IT'S HERE!!!

2009-09-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

From the Colorado Division of Wildlife falconry regulations:

ARTICLE III - CAPTURING, ACQUISITION, REPORTING AND MARKING RAPTORS
#609 - CAPTURING RAPTORS - The following restrictions shall apply to the capturing of raptors and
reporting:...

4. First year (passage) raptors capable of flight, may be captured and removed from the wild only from September 4 through October 16 and November 1 through January 15.

I'll be spending the weekend looking for my new hunting partner. I'm like a little kid at Christmas!!

Trapping Sparrowhawks in Turkey

2009-08-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Trapping season is just over a week away! We do it a little differently here but this is an interesting video nontheless! I flew a little sparrowhawk in Japan as my "re-introduction" to the sport after a 6 year hiatus. She was a blast but I didn't do her justice.

I'm gonna train my kestrel for that dart method right from the beginning this time. Looks like a blast! Can't wait.

Unexpected Visitor

2009-08-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

I made a few fancy sparrow traps this past week in anticipation of the season beginning (in just a few short weeks!!) and set them out to see how they work.

Well, I caught something...just not what I expected!! I found this little guy chillin with a full belly when I checked last night:

That's only half inch hardware cloth he's on so he wasn't a big one (we've seen some 5~6 footers on, or next to, the trail by our house), in fact I think he just slithered his way right through one of the squares to gain entry, but he must've eaten something in there as his middle is quite a bit thicker than the rest of him. I suspect a mouse more than a sparrow, but it must've made his day.

I wanted to take him back to the house to show my son but I would've been sleeping on the couch as per my wife's explicit instructions on ever bringing snakes home. He wasn't real keen on me sticking my hand in there to let him go, and I didn't fancy being bitten, so I just opened the top of the trap and dumped him out. He slithered his way merrily into the undergrowth.

I need a better place to put my trap!

Apologia

2009-08-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm reading "A Merlin for Me" by John Loft right now, a book chronicling Mr. Loft's training of a young merlin in the UK and interspersed with some wonderful poetry. This particular poem stood out as I read it this morning:

APOLOGIA

Hawking is useless,

Brings no advancement,

Is economically negligible, ecologically neutral,

Ethically irrelevant, and thoroughly anti-social.

That's what makes it so attractive.

Accomplishing the death of a lark is

Too insignificant to register on the Richter Scale

Of human endeavour

Yet is the Enterprise that transports me to the platform

Where I become myself.

Falconry News Site

2009-08-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

A new website focusing on falconry and raptor related news in the U.S. and U.K.:

http://www.falconrytoday.net/

I'll have to add it to my links list!

(Oh, and the "less than a month til trapping season" countdown has begun. I'm getting my sparrow traps ready and my BC's covered in new nooses. Sept. 4th ~ 7th is going to be a trapping bonanza! My falconry buddies and I will probably trap what we want on day one and then spend the rest of the weekend trapping for fun and pictures. Can't wait!!!)

Shelf Perch

2009-07-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

The screen perch I used last year was a bit "intrusive" given the already tight space offered by an apartment so I took some inspiration from other shelf perches I've seen and made this up this weekend:

Attached directly to the wall, should be out of the way for my wife and out of reach for my son. It's made from a 17" x 23" whiteboard (Good for tallying season totals as we go! See upper right hand corner...) with a thin plywood backing for strength and composite board rounds cut in half with astroturf on top. I may make one more adjustment before it actually goes up on the wall but I'm pleased with it so far. I'm really looking forward to it being occupied...

Milestone

2009-07-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

I know this is a falconry blog, but things have been slow of late (although I've been making all sorts of equipment, gearing up for the fall...) so I thought I'd share a recent milestone:

My two year old son caught his first fish ever last Wednesday!

And today? By George, I think he's got it!!

I'm one proud Papa! I guess life does include more than falconry... :-)

Falconer on the Edge

2009-07-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Slow day at work today so I was scrolling through some of the blogs I've got linked on the right. Falconer on the Edge is a blog by a woman who, after discovering her husband was a falconer, decided she wanted to know more about the sport and jumped in with two feet by writing a book about one of the sport's living legends, Steve Chindgren. The blog is titled after the book which came out not too long ago and the author had a link to a radio interview she did about the book recently. At the end of the interview she read the following excerpt (I was jotting it down while I was listening so if punctuation etc., is off, forgive me...):

I don't know if a person can really understand falconry without being a falconer. Until someone has flown a bird and had a kill, he probably can't really know the sport. Until he's felt the adrenaline rush and seen the life and death moments, the knowledge of falconry is academic. For the hard core falconers this kind of knowing is in every fiber of their being.

Falconry is a lonely pursuit but I don't think falconers are lonely. They're too focused to be lonely. They're doing something that gives them enourmous pleasure and enjoyment and for those of us left on the outside watching and waiting there's nothing we can do but accept it and be happy because they're happy.

I gave up on trying to explain falconry to non-falconers long ago so this passage resonated with me. I know my falconry is taxing on my family and so I can appreciate the times when they're happy because I'm happy.

Looks like a book I'll have to read!

The End of The Project

2009-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

I was out of town all last week at a conference for work and returned The Project to her owner while I was away. On Friday morning I recieved a text message saying that the kestrel wouldn't eat on her own Thursday night, that he'd force fed her in the morning but it didn't look good. A few hours later I got the text that she'd died.

He's not sure what happened so I don't have details but it's an unfortunate turn of events. I feel like I'd been doing well with her and she'd improved many times over from what I'd initially seen of her. I'd like to think she would've started taking game in the near future but that is, of course, pure speculation.

She was a good learning experience and we had some good flights. Since she wasn't "my" bird, I don't feel the same sense of loss that I did with Dulci, but losing any bird is tough. My eyes are set on the fall now though. I'll get a fresh passage bird and start with a clean slate. I'm starting to feel more comfortable with kestrels in general and look forward to getting the next one going as quickly as possible. The starling population could use a good kestrel to keep them in check and I will be doing my best to oblige! Blogging may be a bit slow for the next while but I'll check in if anything pops up.

I wonder what my next kestrel is doing right now...?

The Bully

2009-06-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

There's a robin that lives outside our apartment building that absolutely HATES the kestrel. Seems like all birds do these days, but this robin is exceptional in his distaste. Every morning when I leave with the kestrel on my fist he comes zooming in to buzz my bird no more than a foot from my face! I'm not exaggerating its proximity either, literally 12 inches, occasionally closer! I can't tell you how many times I've instinctively ducked when out of the corner of my eye this red-breasted ball of fury comes hurtling towards my head!

This morning he was in particularly good form, making perhaps a dozen passes at us before we made it into the car. You'd think a bright red enclosure of metal and glass would stifle the attack but this robin knows we're in there and will keep dive bombing the car until I'm moving out of the parking lot. And the scary thing is, it apparently remembers we're in there an hour later!

When I returned from hawking this morning (not bad, but nothing to blog about) the robin resumed its attack before I'd even left the car! I had scarcely I pulled into a parking spot when I heard the tell tale war cry sound from the roof of the garages behind us and the rufous defender was after us again! Confident in the car's stolidity, I proceeded to let the kestrel finish a tidbit when I hear a loud *thwack* on my window. The robin actually hit the car! There were wing prints on the window!

Head bowed in deference (not submission!!) to the bold little Turdis Migratorius I quickly bolted for the safety of my apartment. I'm not scared of The Bully, I swear I'm not, but that sucker might just put out my eye if I'm not careful!

The Perfect Slip

2009-06-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

The wind was howling pretty good today, 24 mph just before I headed out, but it's awfully hard to keep me from hawking if I have even a bit of time. And between a conference at school and a dutch oven cook off this evening, a bit of time was all I had.

We headed over to our usual business park but after a few times around it appeared that the wind had blown all the starlings into another state. I'm like a fisherman always wanting that one last cast before I head home though so I cruised through the park one last time.
As we passed a vacant lot overgrown with weeds the bird suddenly slicked down and bated. Hmmmm....I didn't see anything but I've learned to trust the birds eyes more than my own. As I turned around I saw a group of probably a dozen starlings lift briefly from the field and then settle back down.

Bingo.

This was an absolutely beautiful set up. The starlings were about 30 yards out and the weeds were so tall that you couldn't see them...but that also meant they couldn't see us! As I pulled to a stop in the adjacent parking lot a gift from heaven, one more starling, dropped in to the foraging group marking exactly where they were. With the wind at our backs The Project was off, wings clipping the tall grasses as she covered the 30 yards in a second. A quick wingover and starlings erupted all around where she'd gone down! Booyah!!!

But then she "hopped". And hopped again. And suddenly she was on the wing again with the dang grackles converging like locusts on a grain field. In a matter of seconds the starlings joined in and she was chased back to the car with a massive ball of birds slamming her from every direction. She was driven to the ground just behind me but even on the ground there was no respite from her attackers. She lifted into the air again and the strong wind instantly took her and the black demons 100 yards away. I was worried that she'd be driven away again but I made my way over to the tree she'd been driven in to and she quickly came to my fist and scolded me for exposing her to such evil.

None the worse for wear, we had one more marginal slip just before leaving the business park and heading home.

So another day with nothing in the bag but man, that was a beautiful slip today. I'm not sure exactly what happened to make her miss since the grass obstructed my view. It could be that she just wasn't quite on target since they were down in the weeds but she had to have been awfully close. I hope it's not that she hit one and just wasn't able to hang on but that's a possibility too. The front inside talons on both feet are extremely dull and I wonder how much of a difference that makes. I'm spraying her feet twice a day with water but it will be awhile before they're where they need to be. Then again, she's been able to handle baggies well enough so who knows. I just need to see her actually hit one in the open so I can see clearly how she does.

We're so close I can taste it. We hawk every day though so I'm optomistic. I hope to have her kill something before next Friday since I'm going out of town for a week and a half and will be returning her to her owner during that time. I hope he hawks her while I'm gone but he's a busy man. So before next Friday...send me good vibes and more of those perfect slips!

AWOL

2009-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I lost her on Saturday.

It was a bit windy but nothing that would keep me from flying, and yeah, she was probably a gram over where she should be but I'd flown her higher and she'd done okay. It was the grackles that did it though.

It was a perfect slip, a couple adult starlings being pestered by probably half a dozen juveniles, and off she went. I don't know if it was the wind or her weight but she overshot them and landed on the corner of a building. And then they came. Blacker than the evil they are spawned from, first one, then the rest of the gang (probably 10 or so) began their assult.

"I was after starlings you b@stards, not you!!" I yelled but they were relentless and aggressive!! They were actually smacking the kestrel around rather than just buzzing her. The kestrel made attempts to come to my fist but every time she took to the air they were on her like black on asphalt, from one building to the next they chased while I did my best to keep up.

And then she'd had enough. She disappeared behind a building where I couldn't go. She was headed east over a wooded area, the nearest road in that direction a half mile away. I quickly jumped in the car and headed that way but even the most direct route was roundabout. No telemetry since her owner was probably going to release her and I am planning on trapping a passage bird in the fall. I'd always thought, "If she goes, she goes" but that isn't the way I wanted it to happen!

I figured the grackles would force her to take some shelter somewhere in the trees but there were some soccer fields on the edge of the woods in the direction I'd last seen her headed in. A soccer game was just finishing so I pulled into the farthest parking spot, got out, and hopelessly swung my lure.

Nothing.

I drove to the shopping center on the other side of the street. Swung the lure.

Nothing.

Crossed a busy intersection and slowly cruised the parking lot of another shopping area and movie theater hoping to see her on a pole...

Nothing. The sun was setting, literally as well as figuratively.

Back to the industrial park where I'd lost her. More swinging of the lure and whistling. *Sigh* I slumped back in the drivers seat and texted her owner, "Bird AWOL. Looking now. Call me when you get a chance." It had been about 45 minutes since she'd disappeared. There was a stiff wind blowing to the east, and about 20 minutes of light left. She was gone.

I drove back to the shopping center across the street from the soccer fields. I looked back over the woods and soccer fields toward the back of the industrial park a half mile away trying vainly one last time to determine her trajectory, figuring that maybe I could come back at first light. If nothing else, it was a good area, she would be fine.

A heavy sigh as I started the car and cruised slowly out of the parking lot...

...but wait.

What's that on the light pole over there? Is that a kestrel or a grackle or robin? There wasn't much light left, it was hard to see. Wouldn't that be hilarious if it was actually her? I stopped the car and pulled out the lure.

One swing and a whistle and she was inbound!!! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! With my hope fading faster than the light, literally dejected and on my way home, I'd found her! She skirted my fist a few times, causing more than a bit of anxiousness as the darkness grew, but eventually landed gingerly on my fist and tore in to a starling breast. I didn't let out a breath until I'd clipped her in, sat back in the car and locked the doors!

The Project continues!!!

Falconry sure can be a rollercoaster!!

(You'd think that I'd want a break after that adventure but Sunday I was out again in just about the same area, this time with her owner along. We had loads of fun, with some fantastically close calls on starlings. She's sooooo close! We had a bunch of slips that really gave some insight to her flight style. She likes to stay above them until the last second and then try and wingover on top of them instead of attacking directly. It will take a good setup for it to work but I think we're close. And even though she was mobbed just about every flight, she handled herself well.)

Foolishness

2009-06-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

I suppose I got a little excited after last weekend. I'll even quote myself as saying (in my last post two days ago nonetheless!!):

...the importance of weight control with kestrels. At 97.7 she was still buzzing the glove and took 20-30 minutes to get down. At 97.1 she's all business.

This morning the storm broke. It wasn't raining and since I'd been kept up most of the night by my poor, sick two year old, when the alarm went off at 5:15 I was ready to get up anyway. I got the bird's food out, gathered my hawking bag, and weighed the bird. Full disclosure: When I put her to bed last night I suspected I'd given her too much. I was right. At 99.7 she was a full 2 grams higher than the weight I posted about above. Again:

At 97.7 she was still buzzing the glove and took 20-30 minutes to get down.

So what do I do? Yup, go hunting. *Sigh* Now for those of you fearful to read on, expecting some tragedy, rest at ease. The bird is safe in her mews at home. And honestly, what happened wasn't even that nerve wracking. It was just what you'd expect from an overweight bird.

I found some sparrows in between some shops at a local shopping center. The bird bobs her head at them but it was more of a cursory glance than any real interest. Nevertheless, I decide to try the dart method with the silly thought, "Well, maybe if she's already inbound she'll decide to chase." A starling lands next to the sparrow and I approach with the bird tucked in my hand...Perfect! I look down at the kestrel to gauge her interest. She's looking up at me with a quizzical look like, "What are we doing now?" I toss and...she shoots over the top of both sparrow and starling and flies up to the top of the building.

What did I expect?!? For the next 15-20 minutes she made lazy passes at my glove but eventually came down. This time I was smart enough to clip her in and head home. I'll be more accurate with her weight tomorrow...OR I WON'T GO OUT!!

And then, as I opened the car door to get in and leave, as if the universe was mocking me, an adult starling with three juveniles in tow landed not more than 15 feet from me and began fighting over a piece of bread.

Weekend Hunts

2009-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

Looking back, I picked up this bird on the 3rd of this month with low expectations. Today is the last day of the month and I couldn't be more excited for her prospects.

The last two days have been absolutely fantastic. 3 good starling chases on Saturday morning and a half dozen or so today where she chased amazingly well, only very narrowly missing on a couple of occasions. There's no more "buzzing" the glove, she comes right down for a tidbit now. She seems like a completely different bird!

One flight that I'll share: An adult starling was feeding with a juvenile near a hedge with some small trees over head. Less than ideal conditions what with the cover so near by but I figured what the heck. It was about a 15 yard slip and the adult squawked a warning and jumped up in the tree when the kestrel was about 10 yards away. The juvenile headed for the hedge another five yards away but obviously wasn't a strong flier yet. Lucky little bugger barely made it and the kestrel pitched up into the tree setting off a chorus of starling cackles from the upset family. I thought for sure she was going to get that one!

Another interesting occurance happened when the kestrel was sitting in a tree after another missed slip. Out of nowhere, a grackle comes diving in and actually knocks her off the branch! They usually just buzz her but there was an audible *thwack* as this one must've been particularly perturbed by her presence. Grackles are aggresive little buggers!!

Anyway, I'm as pleased as punch with her weekend performance and now it's only a matter of time before we start putting them in the bag. I'm seriously amazed at her turn around but it just highlights the importance of weight control with kestrels. At 97.7 she was still buzzing the glove and took 20-30 minutes to get down. At 97.1 she's all business.

It's gonna be a fun summer!!

First Hunt

2009-05-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm a posting maniac this month! ;-)

We went on our first hunt last night. We weren't successful but there were a few good things that happened:

1) She did attempt to chase some sparrows. A bungle on my part ruined the slip but the effort was noted.

2) I tried out the dart throwing method as seen in the video from my previous post. She didn't seem to mind being held that way but didn't chase the sparrows I tossed her out. She overshot the sparrows so maybe I was too close, maybe she didn't see them before I tossed, I don't know but it's something I intend to work on. I have one baggie sparrow left and I'll set it up so that I can toss her at it and see how she reacts.

3) We ended the night with a baggie sparrow and not only did she not try and carry, she sat calmly eating while my 2 year old ran all around her kicking a ball. At one point he even ran up and petted her! While she flinched, she didn't freak out. I was absolutely amazed at her wonderful behavior. Her owner was reluctant to fly her on sparrows for fear of carrying. If she'll sit still through all of that, I'm not going to be worried about it!!

The only negative to the evening was her reluctance to come to the glove after her miss. Her owner had a problem where she would only buzz his glove until he brought out a huge chunk of meat and she displayed that behavior for me last night. She needs to learn to come to the glove with or without a tidbit. I'll have to work on that, but otherwise I'm very pleased with the progress we've made. Here's hoping my next post is about a kill!

A few pics from the baggie:

Fantastic Kestrel Video

2009-05-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

From way down South in Mexico: (Watch the way he throws the kestrel like a dart at the sparrows, I may have to try that!)

The Magic Number

2009-05-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

101.5*

By George, I think she's got it. I don't know if it has been the repeated baggies or what but things have started to click. The past three days when I've opened her mews, instead of trying to get away from me she jumps right to the fist. That's a very good sign.

Sunday we had another interesting baggie hunt. I figured I'd do the same as I did the day before, only tossing a starling instead of a sparrow from my hand and letting her catch it off the fist. There were quite a few mistakes in the set-up on my part and the starling made it to the nearest cover after the initial chase. I managed to flush it again but had to run through lots of stinging nettle...in shorts...and flip flops...to get it to break. My legs are still itching today!! But the kestrel was finally able to get a good shot at it and caught it as it tried to sneak through another patch of cover. Not really pretty, but we got the job done.

Yesterday it was back to sparrows and things couldn't have gone better. Since it was a sparrow I attached a light line to it to prevent possible carrying but gave it plenty of slack so that it could really fly. I walked out in to the field, tossed the sparrow, and she shot of the fist and slammed it into the ground 15 yards away. I moved to within 5 yards (since this was the same area the Cooper's visited us in a couple days ago) but let her finish off the sparrow and begin plucking. She looked around a couple times but did not attempt to carry!! After she'd taken a few bites I was able to move in and she jumped to the fist for a starling breast. PERFECT!!

So things are looking good. I had actually planned on hunting this morning before work but a slight miscalculation in weight and bad weather suggested I wait until the evening. I've got a few more sparrows but I think I'll go ahead and start hunting just to see how she reacts to the different set up. I'll use the baggies to end the hunt if we're not successful.

Hopefully I'll have hunting stories from here on out.

*I switched from the braided dacron jesses I was using to traditional leather which added about 3 grams to her weight. So if I was still using those jesses her flying weight would actually be around 98.5 grams.

Utter Chaos!!

2009-05-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated for awhile but we've been making slow but steady progress.

On Thursday I acquired a bunch of sparrows and starlings for baggies (cleared out a friend's pigeon coop!) so today I took her to a field by my apartment complex and hand tossed one a short distance away. She shot of the fist and pounded it. Wahoo!

Then things went downhill. She tried to carry the sparrow, which is understandable given the openness of where we were, but this wasn't the kind of "carrying" that Dulci did just trying to get to the nearest cover, this was full blown 'I'm taking this sparrow to a tree way over yonder and you're not invited' kinda carrying. Not good. But I still have her on a light creance so she didn't go far.

I made my way over to her and about 5 yards away I noticed a large shape cruising in on my left. COOPERS! It was a big beautiful first year bird, just starting to moult out and missing a few tail feathers. It made a big circle around us not more than 15 yards out so I got a good look! Then it went and landed in a tree 50 yards away.

Of course my bird didn't like that so much so I set about gathering her up glancing back at the coops as I did so. So I'm looking at the coops and I see a big ol RT all tucked up in a shallow stoop headed right for it! The RT crashed through the tree making all sorts of racket and the coops didn't even move! After the initial pass the RT continued on its way figuring, I guess that it had at least let the coops know he was there.

After the RT left the coops decided it wanted one more look at my bird (now on my fist screaming at me) and came in one more time landing in a small tree maybe 15 yards away and looking at me trying to figure out how it could snatch a meal off my fist. It stayed a minute or two and then went back to the first tree 50 yards away and then finally heading off to the East.
I decided I should probably feed my bird up elsewhere regardless!

An exciting session to say the least.

She'll be killing baggies all this week and will hopefully be on to wild game next weekend.

Photo

2009-05-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick photo I snapped with my cellphone this morning. Big hunk of starling in her feet and she's not even looking at it. Let the "re-training"begin!

Kestrel Nest

2009-05-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

This morning as I got off the train headed to work, I glanced up on the corner of the Pepsi Center to see if the pair of kestrels I've seen there before were there again today. As luck would have it, there they were taking in the morning light. It's always a nice way to start off the day seeing them sitting there and I figured they had a nest somewhere nearby but then as I watched the female set off on a shallow glide and landed on the side of this structure on top of the restaurant across the street. She poked her head in the hole in the top left hand corner and then wriggled the rest of the way in! Could it be that I just found their nest?! I snapped this pic with my phone:

This is literally across the street from where I work in downtown Denver. I went back at lunch to see if there was any sign of activity and just after I'd sat down on the grass to watch, the male wriggled his way out, presumably on his way to get "groceries". Wahoo! He didn't return while I was watching but I did see him cruise overhead once more before I left. I know what I'll be doing on my lunch breaks for the next few months! I could trap my next bird on my lunch break in the fall!

Are we there yet?

2009-05-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

At 122.3g this morning she wouldn't fly to the lure. I did manage to coax a few jumps to the fist from about a foot away though so she got about 8g of tidbits. I don't think she'd cast yet though and if she's anything like my last bird that may have affected her morning appetite. She should be back around 120 this evening so we'll see how she does then. If there's still no response to the lure then I may have found her top end. If that's the case I'll start to lower her back down and "training" can begin.

One thing I'm going to have to work out is her talons. She must've bounced around the mews alot this past week dulling her talons faster than I thought possible. She was free lofted at her owners house and her talons were fine so I'm a little surprised but the new surroundings may have freaked her out a bit. I've heard a good solution to dull talons is soaking them in water (submerge a perch in an inch or so of water and let her stand on it for 15-20 minutes). So I'll give that a try but if anyone out there has any other ideas I'm open to suggestions.

Patience

2009-05-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

I've had several requests for "updates"...not much to say though, I've only had the bird for 4 days!!

I'm as anxious to get out there and slay some starlings as anyone but this is going to be a slow process. I'm bringing the bird's weight up for awhile so that I can properly gauge response on the way back down. It's sort of like tuning a violin when you can't quite tell if the note you're hearing is sharp or flat so you purposely loosen the string so far you know it's flat and work your way back up. My "training" sessions at the moment consist of feeding the bird on the lure and then having it jump to my fist for one more tidbit. Not all that exciting.

I'll keep doing this until she pretty much stops responding, meaning when I show her the lure with a big ol' chunk of starling breast on it and she doesn't want it I'll know I'm there. That could be a few days yet. Then the process of re-training begins. Since she's already familiar with the basics I imagine things will go fairly quickly. For example, I won't have to worry about convincing her to jump to my fist like I would a bird fresh off the trap. Instead what I'll be watching for is how fast she responds as I gradually lower her weight. What I want to see is an instant reaction to the lure or my glove and once I figure out at what weight I get that response then we'll head out hunting. How long will that take? I have no idea.

Until then (whenever "then" is) however, I'm afraid any updates would just consist of: I fed the bird again today.

Patience my friends, patience.

New Project

2009-05-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

A buddy of mine trapped this female the last day of trapping season a couple months ago and hasn't been able to get her to do much.

She's taken 4 or 5 baggie starlings but no wild game yet and he said he hasn't been able to figure out her weight. She was a monster when trapped, weighing in around 160, the first time I saw her fly she was about 105 and just dinked around in the wind. The last couple times I've seen her fly she's been around 98ish but I've never seen her chase anything. Yesterday when we went out with her we showed her a pretty easy sparrow slip and she didn't go so he kinda tossed her off the fist and she went and dinked around again. When he tried to call her down she'd buzz the glove and take off again but finally came down to half a quail. My buddy said he didn't feel like he was giving her the time she needed so he was going to put her up for the moult unless I wanted to see if I could get her going for awhile, in my birdless state of depression I said I'd give it a go. There are starlings on the grass in front of my apartment just about every morning and its been killing me not having a bird!

Honestly though, from what I've seen of her so far I'm not real confident and I'm not even really sure where to begin. She wasn't real excited coming out of the box this morning and it took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to jump to my fist at 103.2. I got a few jumps out of her though and fed her up to 108.2. We'll see how she acts tonight. I'm guessing she'll be around 97. I guess I'll just treat her like she's a newly trapped bird and take things as they come.

My boy has confidence in me though. Here he is giving me two thumbs up:

Wish me luck!!

Do you laugh or cry at this?

2009-04-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

A Couple of Fantastic Videos

2009-04-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Excuse some of the language in this one. Falconers tend to get a bit excited when they see good flights!

Post-season Torture

2009-04-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I took my son for a short walk on the nature trail near our apartment complex. I had seen some starlings hanging out in a particular clump of bushes and thought I'd set a trap there to see if I could catch some for my friend's kestrel that we've been trying to get going. Things looked good when probably half a dozen starlings jumped up from the bushes when I approached. *Sigh* And me without a bird.

The rabbits have reached plague-like proportions in the area as well. In the evenings when my son has a little too much energy I like to take him out to chase bunnies. The other night there were twelve on a patch of grass about 30 yards wide! On Sunday, driving around an industrial park looking for starlings with my friends bird we saw two or three rabbits on just about every patch of open ground. And me without a bird.

After I'd set the starling trap last night my son and I wandered around tossing a ball back and forth while the sun dipped below the horizon. A drainage area just outside of our complex is rather marshy looking due to the heavy snow we recieved over the weekend and two mallards circled over us before landing in shallow water. A perfect slip for a gos...and me without a bird.

Now admittedly, rabbits and ducks are out of season so even if I had a bird I wouldn't be chasing them (not to mention with my current state of affairs I wouldn't have a bird that could take rabbits or ducks...) but seeing so much game around really makes the off season hard!

Is it September yet??

Nests

2009-04-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year.

I see birds paired up just about everywhere I go these days. There's a red-tail nest that I pass on my way to and from work and I can always see Momma's head just over the edge of the nest. About a hundred yards away from that nest I saw a pair of kestrels. As I was watching, the male flew down and nabbed something off the ground and then hopped his way back along the telephone line to pass it off to the female. No doubt they've got a nest somewhere nearby too.

I have yet to go back to waste station where Dulci was killed to find the nest of that pair but it's on my "to-do" list.

Whenever I'm fishing I like to think, "What is the next fish I'm going to catch doing right now?" Naturally, I wonder the same thing about the next bird I'm going to fly. Of course, the next bird I'm going to fly probably hasn't hatched yet so I suppose I should be wondering what it's parent's are doing. Everytime I see a pair of kestrels I wonder, "Is that the pair that is going to produce my next bird?"

While I don't have any kestrels nests locked down (kestrels nest in cavities, hollow trees, nest boxes, etc.) I'm keeping my eye out so that I can be sure to get a young bird on the first day of trapping season.

In the meantime, there's always nestcams. Mark over at Flyover Country posted these:

Kestrel nestbox in Nebraska

Peregrine Falcon nestbox on the Nebraska state capitol

and this Bald Eagle nest from British Columbia.

Should keep me entertained for awhile anyway! Enjoy!

Follow up on HR669

2009-04-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

Good video about how to get involved regarding the bill in my previous post.

Action Alert

2009-04-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this alert I saw on a forum I am a member of:

ACTION ALERT - FROM AFA, ASA, and NAIA, with additional information from PIJACWE

NEED YOUR HELP - WHETHER YOU OWN AN "EXOTIC" ANIMAL OR ANY OTHER ANIMAL.
HR 669 IS SET FOR HEARING ON 4/23/09.WE ALL NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TO KILL HR 669
NOW.

THE ISSUE - WHAT IS HR 669? - WHAT WILL IT DO?
"ONE GENERATION
AND OUT" is not just limited to purebred dogs and cats. Now our "non-native
species" are targets of the animal prohibitionist agenda. Under HR 669,
"non-native" basically means if a species ofanimal didn't live in the US before
the arrival of Columbus it is"non-native", and if HR 669 passes, most non-native
species of animal (i.e., exotic animals) won't remain in the US much longer.
That means your exotic pet bird, reptile, fish, or mammal. HR 669 is a very
serious and harmful animal prohibition proposal. HR669 is not needed to protect
our environment. HR 699 is the legislative equivalent of a nuclear bomb that is
aimed at the entire US exotic pet industry, all US exotic pet owners, and all
exotic animals in the US. HR 669 is an "anti-animal bill". There is no
amendment that can fix this bill. HR 669 will hurt everyone who owns an
animal, and it will hurt our animals. Breeder, pet owner, rescuer,
rehabilitator, zoo,service or product provider - it doesn't matter - we will all
be hurt by this bill.

HR 669 needs to be killed at the April
23rd hearing - not amended, not "made better" - HR 669 NEEDS TO BE
KILLED. Please contact the Representatives hearing this bill NOW and
ask them to KILL HR 669 (see below for contact information). All import, export,
transport across State lines, selling, buying, bartering, or offering to sell,
buy or barter, and all breeding, and release, of all non-native species not on
the "approved list" will be prohibited - even by zoos, sanctuaries, and licensed
breeders. Permits authorizing only "importation" may be issued to "zoos,
scientific research, medical, accredited zoological or aquarium display
purposes, or for educational purposes that are specifically reviewed, approved,
and verified by the Secretary". There is no requirement that any permits be
granted. Even if these institutions are able to obtain the required permits,
where will they obtain their imported animals? Habitat for many species is
declining worldwide, many species are endangered or threatened in the wild, and
many species cannot be imported to the US under the CITES treaty. The result of
this bill will be to put a stop domestic breeding of most endangered or
threatened species in the US for zoos, conservation, or reintroduction programs.
Zoos are not immune from the animal prohibitionist agenda. If you "possess" a
non-approved species "legally" prior to enactment of the law, you will be
allowed to keep it, but all of the other restrictions of HR 669 will still apply
to your species - you will not be allowed to sell, transfer, transport across
State lines, export, barter,trade, breed, or give that animal to anyone else. Pet owners will not be allowed to take their non-approved pets with them
if they move to another state, and they will not be allowed to transfer them to
anyone else who can care for them. Those pets will be euthanized when their
owners move, die, or can no longer keep their pets for whatever reason.
Pet owners and their pets are not immune from the animal prohibitionist
agenda."Rescue" and "sanctuary" will not be available for any non-approved
species unless the rescue or sanctuary keeps only species found within their
respective States. That result has been contemplated for years. Rescues and
Sanctuaries are not immune from the animal prohibitionist agenda. Any person or
company manufacturing or selling food or products for non-native (exotic)
species will be affected by this act. If non-native(exotic) species cannot be
legally possessed, bought, sold, or transferred, there will be no incentive for
manufacturers of food, caging, and supplies for these animals to remain in
business. Where will non-native (exotic) animal owners obtain the food and
materials needed to keep their animals?

Free flight of exotic birds will
be prohibited. [This is the part falconers should be particularly worried
about!]

THE LEGAL DETAILS OF THIS BILL
Under existing federal
law, it must be shown that a species is harmful before it is prohibited. That
approach is reasonable, and has worked reasonably well for many years. In
essence, HR 669 turns that reasonable approach on its head, and substitutes the
unreasonable and unjustified approach of "bomb first, ask questions later". HR
669 requires the government to create an "approved" list of"non-native" species
that will be allowed in the US. Any species not on the "approved" list will be
prohibited. Under HR 668 the "approved"list shall include "nonnative wildlife
species that the Secretary finds... based on scientific and commercial
information .... (A) are not harmful to the United States' economy, the
environment, or other animal species' or human health; or (B) may be harmful to
the United States' economy, the environment, or other animal species' or human
health, but already are so widespread in the United States that it is clear to
the Secretary that any import prohibitions or restrictions would have no
practical utility for the United States." It takes time and money for the
government to study any species and make a "finding". Time and money are always
in short supply, and are especially in short supply in this economy. If your
species is not included on the original "approved list", then under HR 669 you
can try to get your species "approved" by paying a fee and submitting a proposal
to our government to include it on the "approved list". Your "proposal" must
include sufficient scientific and commercial information to allow the Secretary
to evaluate whether the proposed nonnative wildlife species is likely to cause
economic or environmental harm or harm to other animal species' or human
health." While your proposal is being "evaluated" by our government, you and
your animals are still subject to the restrictions of HR 669. Whether your
proposal will ever be granted is pure speculation. There are more than 9000 bird
species, and thousands of species of birds are kept in the US. There are many
other non-native (exotic) species owned by animal lovers across the US. How many
bird or other non-native(exotic) species do you think our government can afford
to study and determine that they can be added to this newly created "approved
list"? If the required study can't be made of a species, and the required
finding isn't made about a species, the animal won't make it to the approved
list. That applies to every species of non-native (exotic) animal.

WHAT
YOU CAN DO TO HELP KILL HR 669
Contact your Representatives NOW. You can use
NAIA's Capwiz tool to send an automatic email or fax to each of the
Representatives who will hear this bill to ask them to KILL HR 669. Here's the
link to send your email using Capwiz: www.capwiz.com/naiatrust/

Please contact your own Representatives NOW, and tell them to KILL HR
669. Be polite and respectful, but be clear and firm in your opposition to this
bill. Be brief, and tell them a few reasons why you think it is a bad bill.
Short and to the point works best. If you have time, you can also contact all of
the other Representatives in your State.Write to your Representative using their
contact pages on their websites.

Be sure to contact the local office of
your own Representative by phone, and if you can, make a personal visit. Our
congressional representatives are now on recess, and will return to their work
at the Capitol next week. Let your Representatives' local offices know NOWthat
you want them to KILL HR 669. If the local staff hear from enough constituents
that they want a bill killed, they will let their Representatives know that
their constituents hate this bill.

Distribute this email, widely to
everyone you know who loves animals and wants to keep them in our lives. In
particular, send it to any pet lists you are on. This bill will impact almost
all non-native animals. Ask them to contact the representatives and ask them to
KILL HR 669.

You can see the full text of the bill here.

If you have a website or belong to a discussion list, post this Alert.
Ask your friends to do the same.

We need every one of you to help again,
and we need the help ofeveryone you know. It doesn't matter if they own a bird,
a dog, a cat, a turtle, a hamster, a fish, a snake, a tiger, a monkey, or any
other animal. We are all affected by this bill. Don't let the animal
prohibitionists force their agenda on the rest of us.

For falconers, that would mean no more saker, barbary, or tiata falcons, no European goshawks. Want to fly an aplomado but don't live in Texas? Sorry! I imagine Harris Hawks restricted to their native habitat would upset more than a few...

"The Study"

2009-04-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

I hear falconers say, "A study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife determined that falconry has no impact on wild raptor populations..." all the time, particularly now that new regulations are being considered and passage peregrine take is a possibility.

As anyone who has ever forwarded me a chain email can attest, I am highly skeptical of hearsay and am usually the first one on Google to debunk the unbelievable. Not that this "study" sounded unbelievable, but it did sound a little too good to be true and I hear it referenced so often that I highly doubt all those that reference it have actually read the study, which was cause for concern...But I'll admit that this was one study I didn't want to find out was false.

Well, I am more than happy to report that after seeing "the study" referenced yet again recently I went ahead and did some digging. The study does exist and can be found here. (At least this appears to be the study that is referenced...)

Here's the money quote:

Our assessment indicates take of wild raptors for falconry is very unlikely to have a significant adverse impact on wild raptor populations in the United
States. Because of the limited participation in falconry and because nearly half
of all raptors used in the sport are produced through captive breeding and not
taken from the wild (Peyton et al. 1995), we believe impacts are
unlikely to increase.

So now I can at least say, "A study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has determined that falconry has no significant adverse impacts on wild raptor populations..." without reservations.

I encourage all falconers to read it.

Why Falconry?

2009-04-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

My Mother recently sent me this "fodder for another thoughtful post":

"An admittedly 'tree-hugging' Sierra Club type friend of mine wondered aloud to me recently about the 'why' of falconry. 'Aren't they supposed to be wild birds?' she said. 'Do falconers intend to re-introduce their birds into the wild?' ...what could/should I have said and to what links or books should I refer her (and others like her) when they ask such questions?"

I suppose I can only answer for myself and the answer is likely to be lacking in the rationale that a "tree-hugging-Sierra-Club-type-friend" would like and probably the thoughtfulness that my Mother expects:

Why falconry? Because I like it!

Sure I could wax poetic about the reasons I like it, the challenge, the bond with the bird, the closeness I feel with nature when I participate in it, or direct her to others who have written similar discourses, but will that convince the friend of the validity of the pursuit? I think not.

I could justify it with the explanation that falconers only take immature birds from the wild who have only recently left the nest, explaining that these birds are facing the prospect of a difficult winter where mortality can be up to 80% and suggest that a guaranteed meal, regardless of whether or not it makes a kill, and a safe place to roost every night is probably preferred to the alternative. And I could further explain that many of these first year birds are released back into the wild in the spring after becoming proficient hunters with the help of their falconers, actually improving on its chances of survival. But then would the friend understand? I doubt it.

I could cite the recovery of the peregrine falcon, in large part due to the efforts of falconers, as justification for our existence, or cite this study suggesting that injured raptors rehabilitated using traditional falconry techniques have a better chance for survival than others. But does that really mean anything to that individual? Probably not.

I could even direct her to this post suggesting that I do it because its the perfect hobby...but I don't think she would be satisfied.

The bottom line is I do it because I like it and feel it needs no further justification.

It takes a falconer to understand falconry, if you don't "get it", then you probably never will and explaining it wastes my time and yours. I'd rather be hawking.

So, all you other falconers out there, how would/do YOU answer the question??

20/20 Hindsight

2009-03-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you all for your kind words. I am not good at mourning and have been in somewhat of a state of shock since it happened but support from family and friends is always appreciated.

As you might imagine, I've been thinking a lot about what happened on Saturday. What, if anything, could I have done to prevent it and, in a never ending effort to improve, what can I learn from this experience?

The slip was near a road but just about all the slips I've taken were near roads, it's just part of urban hawking. There were no cars coming when I took the slip, I made sure of that. Regardless, I expected her to land in a tree if she missed as she always does instead of heading out in to the road. She would have too, if the wild kestrel hadn't appeared.

Having said that, the area I was flying in was known to have wild kestrels in it. In fact, I've seen as many as three at the same time within a hundred yards, and I'd seen a male shortly before the accident. But everywhere I've flown I've seen kestrels. I can't think of a slip I've had where I haven't seen kestrels at one point or another. Dulci had dealt with wild kestrels before and usually managed to ignore them or evade them when they harassed her.

The bird that attacked her was a female, and a particularly aggressive female at that and there's a good chance that at this time of the year it was the mate of the male I'd seen earlier. That would explain the aggressiveness. I guess you could say that the wild bird effectively defended her territory...I may have to go back and find out where that pair is nesting. Perhaps they can supply me with one of their young as a replacement come September (trapping season in Colorado). Seems only fitting, right??

All that is to say that I don't know that I would have done things differently. Crap happens. Yeah, I could say I won't fly near roads again but that's just not practical given my current circumstances. I can't say I'll scout for wild birds before every single flight because, well, they're birds and they tend to show up where ever and whenever they want. The only truely safe bird is one at home on a perch but that's not what falconry is about. Every time our birds leave our fists we release them into that harsh world known as the wild where things happen beyond our control. I knew the risks when I signed up and have to take bad with the good.

Dulci provided lots of the good and rather than a long drawn out bad, it was over in an instant. She died while doing what she was born to do and that's all anyone can ask for.

A good friend of mine is still flying his kestrel so there will still be adventures to post but I'm already looking forward to the fall and having another bird of my own. Thanks again for all the kind words, stay tuned, next year will be even better.

Obituary

2009-03-28T13:53:00.001-07:00

Dulcinea was chased into the road and grounded by a wild kestrel this afternoon. The wild bird took off as a car came but Dulci was hit full on and killed instantly.

She will be missed greatly.

Second Chances

2009-03-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

I had a meeting in another city yesterday and since I knew the meeting wouldn't take that long I took the bird along hoping to get some hawking in on my way home...suit pants and button-up shirt be damned! :-)

After a few unsuccessful flights on starlings (I'm just not finding good setups for them!) I was actually resigned to heading home but as the fisherman always wants "one last cast" I thought I'd swing through the shopping center where we'd caught (and released...) the sparrow on Saturday since it was on my way.

A quick glance as I passed the McDonald's parking lot confirmed that there were sparrows. What followed was almost a replica of what happened on Saturday! Only this time the sparrow was on top of the curb and the momentum from the attack carried them into the bushes rather than Dulci dragging it in to them.

This time I waited! I located her in the bush but did not try to approach. All I had was my cell phone but I snapped this picture while I waited for her to do her thing:

After I saw her take a few bites, proving in my mind that the sparrow was a goner, I slowly reached in with a good sized tidbit on my fist and, just like the good girl she is, she looked over her shoulder and jumped on with the sparrow in tow.

See, I do learn from my mistakes!

Haste Makes Waste

2009-03-21T20:05:00.001-07:00

We broke our slump today.

Started off at the local Walmart and had a nice flight on a group of starlings on a grassy slope in the back of the store. The targeted starling did a panicked shuffle right at the last minute, barely escaping the net of talons headed its way.

A short time later a sparrow slip was missed either because she didn't see it or the strong wind blew her off course, I'm not sure. She ended up kiting up into the wind and may have chased another sparrow in the outdoor garden section in the parking lot of the adjacent Home Depot. I thought I saw her stoop in that direction but lost sight of her for a bit. I pulled out the lure as I always do when I can't see where she is and she came pumping over and absolutely slammed the lure. She really wanted to kill something today!

We headed over to a business park and found a large group of starlings feeding in a vacant lot across the street. Unfortunately the closest we could get to them was probably 150 yards away! The lot used to have a gas station that was recently torn down so the area is fenced off awaiting further construction. Bummer!

The McDonald's in the business park delievered the goods however. Dulci picked one off right up against the curb.

For those of you who may not be as familiar with falconry as others, falcons have a "tooth" on their beak that is placed between the neck vertabrae of prey. A quick bite with this tooth seperates the vertabrae killing the prey instantly. Here you can see Dulci administering the coup de grace (click for larger version):

So the sparrow should be dead, right? And in this next picture, it looks pretty lifeless, right?

And I'm taking pictures, so you'd think it's a done deal, correct?

Well, here's the embarassing rest of the story. Given the surroundings (parking lot with cars driving around) I wanted to retrieve Dulci as quickly as possible and perhaps moved in too fast. The fear that many people have in flying sparrows with kestrels is that because they are so small they are carried easily, and a spooked kestrel will definitely carry. While I am extremely fortunate in that Dulci does not fly with her sparrows, she will drag them to places she feels more comfortable if she doesn't like the situation. My quick approach caused her to hop the curb with the sparrow. The other side of the curb happen to be about a 10 foot drop into some rather thick evergreen bushes!

I knew she wasn't going anywhere in there but still felt it important to retrieve her as quickly as possible. I made my way down to where she was and tried to get her to come to my fist garnished with the back half of a mouse. Having a rather large creature push through the evergreen bushes toward her did not help the situation however and everytime I almost got to her she would drag the sparrow further along the wall she was up against.

After going back and forth several times I finally got her to see my fist. Bless her heart, she came right to me...releasing the apparently still living sparrow!! It flew right past my astonished face on its way out of the bush. I'm sure it had quite the tale to tell when it returned to its flock!

In hindsight, I shouldn't have rushed things. First, at the curb I should have just stood in front of her, blocking cars from pulling in to that particular parking spot, until she had broken in to the sparrow. Once she had jumped the curb I really should have calmed down. Those bushes provided her plenty of protection, she wasn't going anywhere so I should again, have let her break in to the sparrow before trying to retrieve her. I was just too excited and it cost her the sparrow.

But I got pics, and the fumble was my fault so I'll probably count that one in her season total.

I won't make the same mistake twice.

Birds make me smile...

2009-03-20T08:31:00.001-07:00

Someone on another email list posted this picture. I thought it was pretty cool!

Help Florida Falconers

2009-03-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

There is perhaps no bird more iconic of falconry than the peregrine falcon. When populations plummeted and the species was close to extinction in the Eastern U.S. it was falconers who stepped forward donating their resources to bring the bird back from the brink. Today the population of peregrine falcons exceeds even pre-DDT numbers and the species is a poster child for restoring endangered animals.

For many years falconers have been prohibited from capturing wild peregrine falcons to use in falconry due to their endangered status. Any peregrine falcon that you see used as a falconry bird these days is from captive bred stock. However, now that the falcon has been delisted and their population is stable, even increasing, falconers may have the opportunity to once again fly their wild counterparts.

In Florida, regulations are being considered to allow falconers this chance but are facing significant opposition from the Audubon society and their "look but don't touch" mentality. Comments are still being accepted regarding the regulations and I urge any and all to write a brief email supporting the idea of allowing falconers to utilize this resource. It seems a very small reward compared to the tireless efforts of those falconers who worked to bring the bird back in the first place.

Below are some talking points (forwarded by the Florida Hawking Fraternity) you could consider in your emails:

The residents of Florida should not be denied access to a natural resource, which harvesting of the Peregrine falcon should be considered as.

Management of peregrines for use in falconry should be based on sound biology, not politics.

Healthy raptor populations are not affected by the practice of falconry, it has been proven on more than one occasion that falconry has no impact on raptor populations.

Peregrines were delisted (no longer requiring special protection) by the USFWS in 1999, 10 years ago. Now that their populations have been restored, restrictions on the use of the peregrine for falconry should be no greater than those for any other raptor with a healthy population.

The peregrines who were being held for falconry in captivity were used as breeder birds to repopulate the wild population. Falconers designed the current methods used to breed raptors in captivity to helps repopulate peregrines.

Falconers went to wild Peregrine nest sites and removed the un-cracked eggs to be incubated and then returned chicks once they were hatched to the nest sites.

Since 1999, when the peregrine was removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species, the peregrine population in the U.S. has more than doubled and is now several times larger than the recovery goal and the historic pre-DDT population.

Migration data suggests that the population of arctic (tundrius) peregrines has increased almost 10x since the 1970s.

All subspecies of peregrine populations in North America are healthy, self-sustaining, and require no special management for falconry. The peregrine falcon populations in the U.S. have continued to increase and show no sign of having reached an upper limit.

A fair estimate of the North American peregrine population is 20,000 breeding pairs. Being healthy, this population produces 40,000 young per year. Using the USFWS's conservative allowable take of 5% of the young produced per year, a take limit of 2,000 peregrines per year for falconry should be permitted. [It should be noted that with the number of licensed falconers in the U.S. at around 4,000, only a small fraction of which would be interested in flying passage peregrine falcons, nowhere near that number of falconers would actually be taken...]

The take of passage (first year and fully independent of parental care) peregrines for falconry should be permitted in all 48 lower states and Alaska.

No special considerations, limits, or quotas are necessary to protect the peregrine beyond those in the falconry regulations (i.e. only immature raptor may be taken and only two raptors may be taken per year per permittee).

Studies have shown that passage raptors taken for falconry and released the following spring have a better chance for survival then if they had been left in the wild.

Please send comments by April 15th to: peregrine@MyFWC.com

*****Thank you for your help and support*****

Harris Hawks

2009-03-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

Doug over at Harris' Hawk Blog recently wrote this post extolling the virtues of the Harris Hawk. I started to comment on the post but it got a little long so I migrated back here to finish my thoughts. Here goes:

They're too easy!

Now before I'm crucified by the Harris Hawkers for writing that I want to make it very clear that I've never understood that knock on Harris Hawks. I flew a couple of Harris Hawks in Japan and compared to the other birds I flew there (Eurasian sparrowhawk, Eurasian kestrel) they were a dream come true! Easy to work with and as gamey as you could ask for. I actually caught more game with those birds than I have with anything else I've flown...but for some reason I'm not all that interested in going back.

Wha...? Given my incompetence at catching game, why would I not want to go back to a Harris Hawk? Honestly, I don't know.

I guess its like bait fishing vs. fly fishing.

There's nothing challenging about catching game with a Harris. (I wonder what kind of comments that will inspire...) An at weight (or even fat) bird with plenty of game pretty much guarantees something will go in the bag.

Throw bait in where there's plenty of fish, be it trout, bass, panfish, catfish, or anything else, and you'll go home to a fish dinner.

And well, everybody's done it.

The falcons and accipiters though, if you catch game regularly with those then you've done something right. There's a certain "finesse" required in the training, in the setup for game, and in the maintenence.

It's like landing a big brown trout on lightweight gear. I guess some like the challenge.

Having said that, there's nothing wrong with bait fishing and if someone invites me worm dunking I'm more than happy to go. I'm not above just going out and having fun. Most of the folks I hawk with these days fly Harris Hawks at industrial park bunnies and we have a blast.

But on my own time I'd rather fly fish. I catch less, probably complain more, and come home frustrated more often than not but someday, someday I'll figure it out and all the blood, sweat, and tears will be worth it. That's my hope anyway.

And if I don't? Well, there will always be someone dunking worms and catching bucket loads of stuff. I'm sure they won't mind if I tag along.